Charles    Carleton    Coffin 


Charles   Carleton  Coffin 


War  Correspondent,   Traveller, 
Author,  and  Statesman 


By 

William    Elliot   Griffis,    D.  D. 

Author  of  "  Matthew  Calbraith  Perry,"  "  Sir 

William  Johnson,"  and  "  Townsend 

Harris,    First    American 

Envoy  to   Japan." 


Boston 

Estes  and  Lauriat 

1898 


r 


Copyright,  1898 
BY  SALLIE  K.  COFFIN 


Colonial  Press . 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by 
C.  II.  Simonds  &>  Co. 
Boston,  U.  S.  A 


Dedicated   to 

The  Generation  of  Young  People  whom 
Carleton 

Helped  to  Educate  for  American  Citizenship. 


Preface 

AMONG  the  million  or  more  readers  of  "  Carle- 
ton's  "  books,  are  some  who  will  enjoy  knowing 
about  him  as  boy  and  man.  Between  condensed 
autobiography  and  biography,  we  have  here,  let  us 
hope,  a  binocular,  which  will  yield  to  the  eye  a 
stereoscopic  picture,  having  the  solidity  and  relief 
of  ordinary  vision. 

Two  facts  may  make  one  preface.  Mrs.  Coffin 
requested  me,  in  a  letter  dated  May  10,  1896,  to 
outline  the  life  and  work  of  her  late  husband.  u  Be 
cause,"  said  she,  "  you  write  in  a  condensed  way 
that  would  please  Mr.  Coffin,  and  because  you  could 
see  into  Mr.  Coffin's  motives  of  life." 

With  such  leisure  and  ability  as  one  in  the  active 
pastorate,  who  preaches  steadily  to  "  town  and  gown" 
in  a  university  town,  could  command,  I  have  cut  a 
cameo  rather  than  chiselled  a  bust  or  statue.  Many 
good  friends,  especially  Dr.  Edmund  Carleton  and 
Rev.  H.  A.  Bridgman,  have  helped  me.  To  them 
I  herewith  return  warm  thanks. 

w.  E.  G. 

ITHACA,  N.  Y.,  May  24,  1898. 


Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introductory  Chapter  .          .          .  .13 

II.  Of  Revolutionary  Sires           .          .  .19 

III.  The  Days  of  Homespun  30 

IV.  Politics,  Travel,  and  Business          .  .        41 
V.  Electricity  and  Journalism      .          .  •        5  5 

VI.  The  Republican  Party  and  Abraham  Lin 
coln      ......       66 

VII.  The  War  Correspondent        ...        79 

VIII.  With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac      .  .        95 

IX.  Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho  !             .  .107 

X.  At  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg      .  .      119 

XI.  The  Ironclads  off  Charleston            .  .132 

XII.  Gettysburg  :   High  Tide  and  Ebb  .  .      141 

XIII.  The  Battles  in  the  Wilderness         .  .151 

XIV.  Camp  Life  and  News-gathering       .  .162 
XV.  "  The  Old  Flag  Waves  over  Sumter  "  .      175 

XVI.  With  Lincoln  in  Richmond  .           .  .      183 

XVII.  The  Glories  of  Europe           .          .  .189 

XVIII.  Through  Oriental  Lands        .           .  .      204 

XIX.  In  China  and  Japan      .          .          .  .215 

XX.  The  Great  Northwest .  .      229 

000 


Contents 


XXI. 

The  Writer  of  History 

.      238 

XXII. 

Music  and  Poetry 

.      256 

XXIII. 

Shawmut  Church 

.      268 

XXIV. 

The  Free  Churchman  . 

.      284 

XXV. 

Citizen,  Statesman,  and  Reformer  , 

.      294 

XXVI. 

A  Saviour  of  Human  Life 

.      308 

XXVII. 

Life's  Evening  Glow    . 

.     321 

XXVIII. 

The  Home  at  Alwington 

•     333 

XXIX. 

The  Golden  Wedding 

•     34» 

Charles    Carleton    Coffin 


INTRODUCTION 

/CHARLES  CARLETON  COFFIN  had 

V^_>i  a  face  that  helped  one  to  believe  in  God. 
His  whole  life  was  an  evidence  of  Christian 
ity.  His  was  a  genial,  sunny  soul  that  cheered 
you.  He  was  an  originator  and  an  organizer 
of  happiness.  He  had  no  ambition  to  be  rich. 
His  investments  were  in  giving  others  a  start 
and  helping  them  to  win  success  and  joy.  He 
was  a  soldier  of  the  pen  and  a  knight  of  truth. 
He  began  the  good  warfare  in  boyhood.  He 
laid  down  armor  and  weapons  only  on  the  day 
that  he  changed  his  world.  His  was  a  long 
and  beautiful  life,  worth  both  the  living  and 
the  telling.  He  loved  both  fact  and  truth  so 
well  that  one  need  write  only  realities  about 
him.  He  cared  little  for  flattery,  so  we  shall 

13 


*iy*  :  ••"•"•••  Chile's*'  Carleton  Coffin 

not  flatter  him.  His  own  works  praise  him  in 
the  gates. 

He  had  blue  eyes  that  often  twinkled  with 
fun,  for  Mr.  Coffin  loved  a  joke.  He  was 
fond  to  his  last  day  of  wit,  and  could  make 
quick  repartee.  None  enjoyed  American  hu 
mor  more  than  he.  He  pitied  the  person  who 
could  not  see  a  joke  until  it  was  made  into 
a  diagram,  with  annotations.  In  spirit,  he  was 
a  boy  even  after  three  score  and  ten.  The 
young  folks  "  lived  in  that  mild  and  magnifi 
cent  eye."  Out  of  it  came  sympathy,  kind 
ness,  helpfulness.  We  have  seen  those  eyes 
flash  with  indignation.  Scorn  of  wrong  snapped 
in  them.  Before  hypocrisy  or  oppression  his 
glances  were  as  mimic  lightning. 

We  loved  to  hear  that  voice.  If  one  that 
is  low  is  "  an  excellent  thing  in  woman,"  one 
that  is  rich  and  deep  is  becoming  to  a  man. 
Mr.  Coffin's  tones  were  sweet  to  the  ear,  per 
suasive,  inspiring.  His  voice  moved  men,  his 
acts  more. 

His  was  a  manly  form.  Broad-footed  and 
full-boned,  he  stood  nearly  six  feet  high.  He 
was  alert,  dignified,  easily  accessible,  and  re 
sponsive  even  to  children.  With  him,  acquaint- 


Introduction 


anceship  was  quickly  made,  and  friendship  long 

preserved.  Those  who  knew  Charles  Carleton 
Coffin  respected,  honored,  loved  him.  His 
memory,  in  the  perspective  of  time,  is  as  our 
remembrance  of  his  native  New  Hampshire 
hills,  rugged,  sublime,  tonic  in  atmosphere, 
seat  of  perpetual  beauty.  So  was  he,  a  moral 
invigorant,  the  stimulator  to  noble  action,  the 
centre  of  spiritual  charm. 

Who  was  he,  and  what  did  he  do  that  he 
should  have  his  life-story  told? 

First  of  all,  he  was  the  noblest  work  of  God, 
an  honest  man.  Nothing  higher  than  this. 
The  New  Hampshire  country  boy  rose  to  one 
of  the  high  places  in  the  fourth  estate.  He 
became  editor  of  one  of  Boston's  leading  daily 
newspapers.  On  the  battle-field  he  saw  the 
movements  of  the  mightiest  armies  and  navies 
ever  gathered  for  combat.  As  a  white  lily 
among  war  correspondents,  he  was  ever  trusted. 
He  not  only  informed,  but  he  kept  in  cheer 
all  New  England  during  four  years  of  strain. 
With  his  pen  he  made  himself  a  master  of 
English  style.  He  was  a  poet,  a  musician, 
a  traveller,  a  statesman,  and,  best  of  all  and 
always,  a  Christian.  He  travelled  around  the 


l6'v  *  ttiarlfes^  Carleton  Coffin 


globe,  and  then  told  the  world's  story  of  liberty 
and  of  the  war  that  crushed  slavery  and  state 
sovereignty  and  consolidated  the  Union.  With 
his  books  he  has  educated  a  generation  of  Amer 
ican  boys  and  girls  in  patriotism.  He  died 
without  entering  into  old  age,  for  he  was  al 
ways  ready  to  entertain  a  new  idea.  Let  us 
glance  at  his  name  and  inheritance.  He  was 
well  named,  and  ever  appreciated  his  heritage. 
In  his  Christian,  middle,  and  family  name,  is 
a  suggestion.  In  each  lies  a  story. 

"Charles,"  as  we  say,  is  the  Norman  form  of 
the  old  Teutonic  Carl,  meaning  strong,  valiant, 
commanding.  The  Hungarians  named  a  king 
Carl. 

"  Carleton  "  is  the  ton  or  town  of  Carl  or 
Charles. 

"Coffin"  in  old  English  meant  a  cask,  chest, 
casket,  box  of  any  kind. 

The  Latin  Cophinum  was  usually  a  basket. 
When  Wickliffe  translated  the  Gospel,  he  ren 
dered  the  verse  at  Matt.  xiv.  20,  "  They 
took  up  of  that  which  remained  over  of  the 
broken  pieces,  twelve  coffins  full." 

The  name  as  a  family  name  is  still  found  in 
England,  but  all  the  Coffins  in  America  are 


Introduction  17 


descended  from  Tristram  Coffin,  who  sailed 
from  Plymouth,  England,  in  1642,  and  in 
1660  settled  in  Nantucket.  The  most  an 
cient  seat  of  the  name  and  family  of  the 
Coffins  in  England  is  Portledge,  in  the  par 
ish  of  Alwington.  To  his  house,  and  last 
earthly  home,  in  Brookline,  Mass.,  built  under 
his  own  eye,  and  in  which  Charles  Carleton 
Coffin  died,  he  gave  the  name  of  Alwington. 

"  Carleton's  "  grandfather,  Peter  Coffin, 
married  Rebecca  Hazeltine,  of  Chester,  N.  H., 
whose  ancestors  had  come  from  England  to 
Salem,  Mass.,  in  1637,  and  settled  at  Bradford. 
Carleton  has  told  something  of  his  ancestry 
and  kin  in  his  "History  of  Boscawen."  In  his 
later  years,  in  the  eighties  of  this  century,  at 
the  repeated  and  urgent  request  of  his  wife, 
Carleton  wrote  out,  or,  rather,  jotted  down, 
some  notes  for  the  story  of  the  earlier  portion 
of  his  life.  He  was  to  have  written  a  volume 
—  had  his  wife  succeeded,  after  due  persever 
ance,  in  overcoming  his  modesty  —  entitled 
"  Recollections  of  Seventy  Years."  To  this, 
we,  also,  that  is,  the  biographer  and  others, 
often  urged  him.  It  was  not  to  be. 

Excepting,  then,  these  hastily  jotted   notes, 


1 8  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

Mr.  Coffin  never  indicated,  gave  directions,  or 
prepared  materials  for  his  biography.  To  the 
story  of  his  life,  as  gathered  from  his  own 
rough  notes,  intended  for  after-reference  and 
elaboration,  let  us  at  once  proceed,  without 
further  introduction. 


CHAPTER   II 

OF    REVOLUTIONARY    SIRES 

THE  Coffins  of  America  are  descended 
from  Tristram  Coffin  of  England  and 
Nantucket.  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  was  born 
of  Revolutionary  sires.  He  first  saw  light  in 
the  southwest  corner  room  of  a  house  which 
stood  on  Water  Street,  in  Boscawen,  N.  H., 
which  his  grandfather,  Captain  Peter  Coffin, 
had  built  in  1766. 

This  ancestor,  "an  energetic,  plucky,  good- 
natured,  genial  man,"  married  Rebecca  Hazel- 
tine,  of  Chester,  N.  H.  When  the  frame  of 
the  house  was  up  and  the  corner  room  par 
titioned  off,  the  bride  and  groom  began  house 
keeping.  Her  wedding  outfit  was  a  feather 
bed,  a  frying-pan,  a  dinner-pot,  and  some 
wooden  and  pewter  plates.  She  was  just  the 
kind  of  a  woman  to  be  the  mother  of  patriots 
and  to  make  the  Revolution  a  success.  The 
couple  had  been  married  nine  years,  when  the 

19 


2O  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

news  of  the  marching  of  the  British  upon 
Lexington  reached  Boscawen,  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  2oth  of  April,  1775.  Captain  Coffin 
mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to  Exeter,  to  take 
part  in  the  Provincial  Assembly,  which  gath 
ered  the  next  day.  Two  years  later,  he  served 
in  the  campaign  against  Burgoyne.  When  the 
militia  was  called  to  march  to  Bennington,  in 
July,  1777,  one  soldier  could  not  go  because 
he  had  no  shirt.  Mrs,  Coffin  had  a  web  of 
tow  cloth  in  the  loom.  She  at  once  cut  out 
the  woven  part,  sat  up  all  night,  and  made  the 
required  garment,  so  that  he  could  take  his 
place  in  the  ranks  the  next  morning.  One 
month  after  the  making  of  this  shirt,  the  father 
of  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  was  born,  July  15. 

When  the  news  of  Stark's  victory  at  Ben 
nington  came,  the  call  was  for  every  able- 
bodied  man  to  turn  out,  in  order  to  defeat 
Burgoyne.  Every  well  man  went,  including 
Carleton's  two  grandfathers,  Captain  Peter 
Coffin,  who  had  been  out  in  June,  though 
not  in  Stark's  command,  and  Eliphalet  Kil- 
born.  The  women  and  children  were  left  to 
gather  in  the  crops.  The  wheat  was  ripe  for 
the  sickle,  but  there  was  not  a  man  or  boy  to 


Of  Revolutionary  Sires  21 

cut  it.  With  her  baby,  one  month  old,  in  her 
arms,  Mrs.  Peter  Coffin  mounted  the  horse, 
leaving  her  other  children  in  care  of  the  oldest, 
who  was  but  seven  years  old.  The  heroine 
made  her  way  six  miles  through  the  woods, 
fording  Black  Water  River  to  the  log  cabin 
of  Enoch  Little,  on  Little  Hill,  in  the  present 
town  of  Webster.  Here  were  several  sons, 
but  the  two  eldest  had  gone  to  Bennington. 
Enoch,  Jr.,  fourteen  years  old,  could  be  spared 
to  reap  the  ripened  grain,  but  he  was  without 
shoes,  coat,  or  hat,  and  his  trousers  of  tow 
cloth  were  out  at  the  knee. 

"  Enoch  can  go  and  help  you,  but  he  has  no 
coat,"  said  Mrs.  Little. 

"  I  can  make  him  a  coat,"  said  Mrs.  Coffin. 

The  boy  sprang  on  the  horse  behind  the 
heroic  woman,  who,  between  the  baby  and  the 
boy,  rode  upon  the  horse  back  to  the  farm. 
Enoch  took  the  sickle  and  went  to  the  wheat 
field,  while  Mrs.  Coffin  made  him  a  coat.  She 
had  no  cloth,  but  taking  a  meal-bag,  she  cut 
a  hole  in  the  bottom  for  his  head,  and  two 
other  holes  for  his  arms.  Then  cutting  off 
the  legs  of  a  pair  of  her  stockings,  she  sewed 
them  on  for  sleeves,  thus  completing  the  gar- 


22  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ment.  Going  into  the  wheat  field,  she  laid  her 
baby,  the  father  of  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  in 
the  shade  of  a  tree,  and  bound  up  the  cut  grain 
into  sheaves. 

In  1789,  when  the  youngest  child  of  this 
Revolutionary  heroine  was  four  months  old,  she 
was  left  a  widow,  with  five  children.  Three 
were  daughters,  the  eldest  being  sixteen  ;  and 
two  were  sons,  the  elder  being  twelve.  With 
rigid  economy,  thrift,  and  hard  work,  she  reared 
her  family.  In  working  out  the  road  tax  she 
was  allowed  four  pence  halfpenny  for  every  cart 
load  of  stones  dumped  into  miry  places  on  the 
highway.  She  helped  the  boys  fill  the  cart  with 
stones.  While  the  boy  who  became  Carleton's 
father  managed  the  steers,  hauled  and  dumped 
the  load,  she  went  on  with  her  knitting. 

Of  such  a  daughter  of  the  Revolution  and  of 
a  Revolutionary  sire  was  Carleton's  father  born. 
When  he  grew  to  manhood  he  was  "  tall  in 
stature,  kind-hearted,  genial,  public-spirited, 
benevolent,  ever  ready  to  relieve  suffering 
and  to  help  on  every  good  cause.  He  was 
an  intense  lover  of  liberty  and  was  always  true 
to  his  convictions."  He  fell  in  love  with 
Hannah,  the  daughter  of  Deacon  Eliphalet 


Of  Revolutionary  Sires  23 

Kilborn,  of  Boscawen,  and  the  couple  lived  in 
the  old  house  built  by  his  father.  There,  after 
other  children  had  been  born,  Charles  Carleton 
Coffin,  her  youngest  child,  entered  this  world 
at  9  A.  M.,  July  26,  1823.  From  this  time 
forward,  the  mother  never  had  a  well  day. 
After  ten  years  of  ill  health  and  suffering,  she 
died  from  too  much  calomel  and  from  slow 
starvation,  being  able  to  take  but  little  food 
on  account  of  canker  in  her  mouth  and  throat. 
Carleton,  her  pet,  was  very  much  with  her 
during  his  child-life,  so  that  his  recollections  of 
his  mother  were  ever  very  clear,  very  tender, 
and  profoundly  influential  for  good. 

The  first  event  whose  isolation  grew  defined 
in  the  mind  of  "  the  baby  new  to  earth  and 
sky,"  was  an  incident  of  1825,  when  he  was 
twenty-three  months  old.  His  maternal  grand 
father  had  shot  a  hawk,  breaking  its  wing,  and 
bringing  it  to  the  house  alive.  The  boy  baby 
standing  in  the  doorway,  all  the  family  being 
in  the  yard,  always  remembered  looking  at 
what  he  called  "a  hen  with  a  crooked  bill." 
Carleton's  recollection  of  the  freshet  of  August, 
1826,  when  the  great  slide  occurred  at  the 
White  Mountains,  causing  the  death  of  the 


24  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Willey  family,  was  more  detailed.  This  event 
has  been  thrillingly  described  by  Thomas  Starr 
King.  The  irrepressible  small  boy  wanted  to 
"  go  to  meeting  "  on  Sunday.  Being  told  that 
he  could  not,  he  cried  himself  to  sleep.  When 
he  awoke  he  mounted  his  "horse,"  —  a  broom 
stick, —  and  cantered  up  the  road  for  a  half  mile. 
Captured  by  a  lady,  he  resisted  vigorously, 
while  she  pointed  to  the  waters  running  in 
white  streams  down  the  hills  through  the 
flooded  meadows  and  telling  him  he  would 
be  drowned. 

Meanwhile  the  hired  man  at  home  was 
poling  the  well  under  the  sweep  and  "  the 
old  oaken  bucket,"  thinking  the  little  fellow 
might  have  leaned  over  the  curb  and  tumbled 
in.  Shortly  afterwards  he  came  near  disappear 
ing  altogether  from  this  world  by  tumbling 
into  the  water-trough,  being  fished  out  by  his 
sistef  Mary. 

In  the  old  kitchen,  a  pair  of  deer's  horns 
fastened  into  the  wall  held  the  long-barrelled 
musket  which  his  grandfather  had  carried 
in  the  campaign  of  1777.  A  round  beaver 
hat,  bullet,  button,  and  spoon  moulds,  and 
home-made  pewter  spoons  and  buttons,  were 


Of  Revolutionary  Sires 


among  other  things  which  impressed  them 
selves  upon  the  sensitive  films  of  the  child's 
memory. 

Following  out  the  usual  small  boy's  instinct 
of  destruction,  he  once  sallied  out  down  to 
the  "karsey"  (causeway)  to  spear  frogs  with  a 
weapon  made  by  his  brother.  It  was  a  sharp 
ened  nail  in  the  end  of  a  broomstick.  Stepping 
on  a  log  and  making  a  stab  at  a  "pull  paddock," 
he  slipped  and  fell  head  foremost  into  the  mud 
and  slime.  Scrambling  out,  he  hied  homeward, 
and  entering  the  parlor,  filled  with  company, 
he  was  greeted  with  shouts  of  laughter.  Even 
worse  was  it  to  be  dubbed  by  his  brother  and 
the  hired  man  a  "  mud  lark." 

Carleton's  first  and  greatest  teachers  were 
his  mother  and  father.  After  these,  came 
formal  instruction  by  means  of  letters  and 
books,  classes  and  schools.  Carleton's  relig 
ious  and  dogmatic  education  began  with  the 
New  England  Primer,  and  progressed  with 
the  hymns  of  that  famous  Congregationalist, 
Doctor  Watts.  When  five  years  old,  at  the 
foot  of  a  long  line  of  boys  and  girls,  he  toed 
the  mark,  —  a  crack  in  the  kitchen  floor,  - 
and  recited  verses  from  the  Bible.  Sunday- 


26  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

school  instruction  was  then  in  its  beginning 
at  Boscawen.  The  first  hymn  he  learned 
was : 

"  Life  is  the  time  to  serve  the  Lord." 

After  mastering 

"  In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all," 

the  infantile  ganglions  got  tangled  up  be 
tween  the  "  sleigh  "  in  the  carriage-house,  and 
the  act  of  pussy  in  mauling  the  poor  little 
mouse,  unmentioned,  but  of  importance,  in 
the  couplet : 

"  The  cat  doth  play, 
And  after  slay." 

Having  heard  of  and  seen  the  sleigh  before 
learning  the  synonym  for  "  kill,"  the  little 
New  Hampshire  boy  was  as  much  bothered 
as  a  Chinese  child  who  first  hears  one  sound 
which  has  many  meanings,  and  only  gradually 
clears  up  the  mystery  as  the  ideographs  are 
mastered. 

From  the  very  first,  the  boy  had  an  ear 
sensitive  to  music.  The  playing  of  Knoch 
Little,  his  first  school-teacher,  and  afterwards 
his  brother-in-law,  upon  the  bass  viol,  was 


Of  Revolutionary  Sires  27 

very  sweet.  Napoleon  was  never  prouder  of 
his  victories  at  Austerlitz  than  was  little 
Carleton  of  his  first  reward  of  merit.  This 
was  a  bit  of  white  paper  two  inches  square, 
bordered  with  yellow  from  the  paint-box  of 
a  beautiful  young  lady  who  had  written  in 
the  middle,  "  To  a  good  little  boy." 

The  first  social  event  of  importance  was  the 
marriage  of  his  sister  Apphia  to  Enoch  Little, 
Nov.  29,  1829,  when  a  room-full  of  cousins, 
uncles,  and  aunts  gathered  together.  After  a 
chapter  read  from  the  Bible,  and  a  long  ad 
dress  by  the  clergyman,  the  marital  ceremony 
was  performed,  followed  by  a  hymn  read  and 
sung,  and  a  prayer.  Although  this  healthy 
small  boy,  Carleton,  had  been  given  a  big 
slice  of  wedding  cake  with  white  frosting  on 
the  top,  he  felt  himself  injured,  and  was  hotly 
jealous  of  his  brother  Enoch,  who  had  secured 
a  slice  with  a  big  red  sugar  strawberry  on  the 
frosting.  After  eating  voraciously,  he  hid  the 
remainder  of  his  cake  in  the  mortise  of  a  beam 
beside  the  back  chamber  stairs.  On  visiting 
it  next  morning  for  secret  indulgence,  he 
found  that  the  rats  had  enjoyed  the  wed 
ding  feast,  too.  Nothing  was  left.  His  first 


28  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

toy  watch  was  to  him  an  event  of  vast  sig 
nificance,  and  he  slept  with  it  under  his  pil 
low.  When  also  he  had  donned  his  first  pair 
of  trousers,  he  strutted  like  a  turkey  cock  and 
said,  "  I  look  just  like  a  grand  sir."  Children 
in  those  days  often  spoke  of  men  advanced  in 
years  as  "  grand  sirs." 

The  boy  was  ten  years  old  when  President 
Andrew  Jackson  visited  Concord.  Everybody 
went  to  see  "  Old  Hickory."  In  the  yellow- 
bottomed  chaise,  paterfamilias  Coffin  took  his 
boy  Carleton  and  his  daughter  Elvira,  the 
former  having  four  pence  ha'penny  to  spend. 
Federal  currency  was  not  plentiful  in  those 
days,  and  the  people  still  used  the  old  nomen 
clature,  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence,  which 
was  Teutonic  even  before  it  was  English  or 
American.  Rejoicing  in  his  orange,  his  stick 
of  candy,  and  his  supply  of  seed  cakes,  young 
Carleton,  from  the  window  of  the  old  North 
Meeting  House,  saw  the  military  parade  and 
the  hero  of  New  Orleans.  With  thin  features 
and  white  hair,  Jackson  sat  superbly  on  a  white 
horse,  bowing  right  and  left  to  the  multitude. 
Martin  Van  Buren  was  one  of  the  party. 

Another  event,  long  to  be  remembered  by  a 


Of  Revolutionary  Sires  29 

child  who  had  never  before  been  out  late  at 
night,  was  when,  with  a  party  of  boys  seven  or 
eight  in  number,  he  went  a-spearing  on  Great 
Pond.  In  the  calm  darkness  they  walked 
around  the  pond  down  the  brook  to  the  falls. 
With  a  bright  jack-light,  made  of  pitch-pine- 
knots,  everything  seemed  strange  and  exciting 
to  the  boy  who  was  making  his  first  acquain 
tance  of  the  wilderness  world  by  night.  His 
brother  Enoch  speared  an  eel  that  weighed 
four  pounds,  and  a  pickerel  of  the  same  weight. 
The  party  did  not  get  home  till  2  A.  M.,  but 
the  expedition  was  a  glorious  one  and  long 
talked  over.  The  only  sad  feature  in  this  rich 
experience  was  in  his  mother's  worrying  while 
her  youngest  child  was  away. 

This  was  in  April.  On  the  2oth  of  August, 
just  after  sunset,  in  the  calm  summer  night, 
little  Carleton  looked  into  his  mother's  eyes 
for  the  last  time,  and  saw  the  heaving  breast 
gradually  become  still.  It  was  the  first  great 
sorrow  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE     DAYS    OF    HOMESPUN 

/^ARLETON'S  memories  of  school-days 
\^J(  have  little  perhaps  that  is  uncommon. 
He  remembers  the  typical  struggle  between 
the  teacher  and  the  big  boy  who,  despite  resist 
ance,  was  soundly  thrashed.  Those  were  the 
days  of  physical  rather  than  moral  argument, 
of  punishment  before  judicial  inquiry.  Once 
young  Carleton  had  marked  his  face  with  a 
pencil,  making  the  scholars  laugh.  Called  up 
by  the  man  behind  the  desk,  and  asked  whether 
he  had  done  it  purposely,  the  frightened  boy, 
not  knowing  what  to  say,  answered  first  yes, 
and  then  no.  "  Don't  tell  a  lie,  sir,"  roared 
the  master,  and  down  came  the  blows  upon 
the  boy's  hands,  while  up  came  the  sense  of 
injustice  and  the  longing  for  revenge.  The 
boy  took  his  seat  with  tingling  palms  and  a 
heart  hot  with  the  sense  of  wrong,  but  no  tears 
fell. 

30 


The  Days  of  Homespun  31 

It  was  his  father's  rule  that  if  the  children 
were  punished  at  school,  they  should  have  the 
punishment  repeated  at  home.  This  was  the 
sentiment  of  the  time  and  the  method  of  dis 
cipline  believed  to  be  best  for  moulding  boys 
and  girls  into  law-abiding  citizens.  In  the 
evening,  tender-hearted  and  with  pain  in  his 
soul,  but  fearing  to  relax  and  let  down  the  bars 
to  admit  a  herd  of  evils,  the  father  doomed 
his  son  to  stay  at  home,  ordering  as  a  punish 
ment  the  reading  of  the  narrative  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira. 

From  that  hour  throughout  his  life  Carleton 
hated  this  particular,  scripture.  He  had  told 
no  lie,  he  did  not  know  what  he  had  said,  yet 
he  was  old  enough  to  feel  the  injustice  of  the 
punishment.  It  rankled  in  memory  for  years. 
Temporarily  he  hated  the  teacher  and  the 
Bible,  and  the  episode  diminished  for  awhile 
his  respect  for  law  and  order. 

The  next  ten  years  of  Carleton's  life  may  be 
told  in  his  own  words,  as  follows  : 

"The  year  of  1830  may  be  taken  as  a  gen 
eral  date  for  a  new  order  of  social  life.  The 
years  prior  to  that  date  were  the  days  of  home 
spun.  I  remember  the  loom  in  the  garret,  the 


32  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

great  and  small  spinning-wheels,  the  warping 
bars,  quill  wheel,  reels,  swifts,  and  other  rude 
mechanisms  for  spinning  and  weaving.  My 
eldest  sister  learned  to  spin  and  weave.  My 
second  sister  Mary  and  sister  Elvira  both  could 
spin  on  the  large  wheel,  but  did  not  learn  to 
weave.  I  myself  learned  to  twist  yarn  on  the 
large  wheel,  and  was  set  to  winding  it  into  balls. 

"  The  linen  and  the  tow  cloths  were  bleached 
on  the  grass  in  the  orchard,  and  it  was  my  busi 
ness  to  keep  it  sprinkled  during  the  hot  days, 
to  take  it  in  at  night  and  on  rainy  days,  to  pre 
vent  mildew.  In  those  days  a  girl  began  to 
prepare  for  marriage  as  soon  as  she  could  use 
a  needle,  stitching  bits  of  calico  together  for 
quilts.  She  must  spin  and  weave  her*  own 
sheets  and  pillow-cases  and  blankets. 

"All  of  my  clothes,  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen, 
were  homespun.  My  first  c  boughten  '  jacket 
was  an  olive  green  broadcloth,  —  a  remnant 
which  was  bought  cheap  because  it  was  a  rem 
nant.  I  wore  it  at  an  evening  party  given  by 
my  school-mate.  We  were  twenty  or  more 
boys  and  girls,  and  I  was  regarded  by  my 
mates  with  jealousy.  I  was  an  aristocrat,  all 
because  I  wore  broadcloth. 


The  Days  of  Homespun  33 

"It  was  the  period  of  open  fireplaces. 
Stoves  were  just  being  introduced.  We  could 
play  blind  man's  buff  in  the  old  kitchen  with 
great  zest  without  running  over  stoves. 

"  It  was  the  period  of  brown  bread,  apple 
and  milk,  boiled  dinners,  pumpkin  pies.  We 
had  very  little  cake.  Pork  and  beans  and 
Indian  pudding  were  standard  dishes,  only 
the  pudding  was  eaten  first.  My  father  had 
always  been  accustomed  to  that  order.  His 
second  marriage  was  in  1835,  anc^  m7  step 
mother,  or  rather  my  sister  Mary,  who  was 
teaching  school  in  Concord  and  had  learned 
the  new  way,  brought  about  the  change  in  the 
order  of  serving  the  food. 

"Prior  to  1830  there  was  no  stove  in  the 
meeting-house,  and  the  introduction  of  the 
first  stove  brought  about  a  deal  of  trouble. 
One  man  objected,  the  air  stifled  him.  It  was 
therefore  voted  that  on  one  Sunday  in  each 
month  there  should  be  no  fire. 

"It  was  a  bitter  experience,  —  riding  two 
and  one-half  miles  to  meeting,  sitting  through 
the  long  service  with  the  mercury  at  zero. 
Only  we  did  not  know  how  cold  it  was,  not 
having  a  thermometer.  My  father  purchased 


34  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

one  about  1838.  I  think  there  was  one  earlier 
in  the  town. 

"  The  Sunday  noons  were  spent  around 
the  fireplaces.  The  old  men  smoked  their 
pipes. 

"In  1835,  religious  meetings  were  held  in 
all  the  school  districts,  usually  in  the  kitchens 
of  the  farmhouses.  There  \vas  a  deep  religious 
interest.  Protracted  meetings,  held  three  days 
in  succession,  were  frequently  attended  by  all 
the  ministers  of  surrounding  towns.  I  became 
impressed  with  a  sense  of  my  condition  as  a 
sinner,  and  resolved  to  become  a  Christian.  I 
united  with  the  church  the  first  Sunday  in 
May,  1835,  in  my  twelfth  year.  I  knew  very 
little  about  the  spiritual  life,  but  I  have  no 
doubt  that  I  have  been  saved  from  many 
temptations  by  the  course  then  pursued.  The 
thought  that  I  was  a  member  of  the  church 
was  ever  a  restraint  in  temptation." 

The  anti-slavery  agitation  reached  Boscawen 
in  1835,  and  Carleton's  father  became  an  ar 
dent  friend  of  the  slaves.  In  the  Webster 
meeting-house  the  boy  attended  a  gathering 
at  which  a  theological  student  gave  an  address, 
using  an  illustration  in  the  peroration  which 


The   Days  of  Homespun  35 

made  a  lasting  impression  upon  the  youthful 
mind.  At  a  country  barn-raising,  the  frame 
was  partly  up,  but  the  strength  of  the  raisers 
was  gone.  "  It  won't  go,  it  won't  go,"  was 
the  cry.  An  old  man  who  was  making  pins 
threw  down  his  axe,  and  shouted,  "  It  will  go," 
and  put  his  shoulder  to  a  post,  and  it  did 
go.  So  would  it  be  with  anti-slavery. 

The  boy  Carleton  became  an  ardent  aboli 
tionist  from  this  time  forth.  He  read  the 
Liberator^  Herald  of  Freedom^  Emancipator ',  and 
all  the  anti-slavery  tracts  and  pamphlets  which 
he  could  get  hold  of.  In  his  bedroom,  he  had 
hanging  on  the  wall  the  picture  of  a  negro  in 
chains.  The  last  thing  he  saw  at  night,  and 
the  first  that  met  his  eyes  in  the  morning, 
was  this  picture,  with  the  words,  "  Am  I  not 
a  man  and  a  brother  ?  " 

With  their  usual  conservatism,  the  churches 
generally  were  hostile  to  the  movement  and 
methods  of  the  anti-slavery  agitation.  There 
'was  an  intense  prejudice  against  the  blacks. 
The  only  negro  in  town  was  a  servant  girl, 
who  used  to  sit  solitary  and  alone  in  the  col 
ored  people's  pew  in  the  gallery.  When  three 
families  of  black  folks  moved  into  a  deserted 


36  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

house  in  Boscawen,  near  Beaver  Dam  Brook, 
and  their  children  made  their  appearance  in 
Corser  Hill  school,  a  great  commotion  at  once 
ensued  in  the  town.  After  the  Sunday  evening 
prayer-meeting,  which  was  for  "  the  conver 
sion  of  the  world,"  it  was  agreed  by  the 
legal  voters  that  "  if  the  niggers  persisted 
in  attending  school,"  it  should  be  discontinued. 
Accordingly  the  children  left  the  Corser  Hill 
school,  and  went  into  what  was,  "  religiously 
speaking,"  a  heathen  district,  where,  however, 
the  prejudice  against  black  people  was  not 
so  strong,  and  there  were  received  into  the 
school. 

Thereupon,  out  of  pure  devotion  to  prin 
ciple,  Carleton's  father  protested  against  the 
action  of  the  Corser  Hill  people,  and,  to  show 
his  sympathy,  gave  employment  to  the  negroes 
even  when  he  did  not  need  their  services.  So 
ciety  was  against  the  Africans,  and  they  needed 
help.  They  were  not  particularly  nice  in  their 
ways,  nor  were  they  likely  to  improve  while  all 
the  world  was  against  them.  Mr.  Coffin's  idea 
was  to  improve  them. 

About  this  time  Whittier's  poems,  especially 
those  depicting  slave  life,  had  a  great  influence 


The  Days  of  Homespun  37 

upon  young  Carleton.  Learning  the  poems,  he 
declaimed  them  in  schools  and  lyceums.  The 
first  week  in  June,  which  was  not  only  election 
time,  but  also  anniversary  week  in  Concord, 
with  no  end  of  meetings,  was  mightily  enjoyed 
by  the  future  war  correspondent.  He  attended 
them,  and  listened  to  Garrison,  Thompson, 
Weld,  Stanton,  Abby  K.  Foster,  and  other 
agitators.  The  disruption  of  the  anti-slavery 
societies,  and  the  violence  of  the  churches, 
were  matters  of  great  grief  to  Carleton's  father, 
who  began  early  to  vote  for  James  G.  Birney. 
He  would  not  vote  for  Henry  Clay.  When 
Carleton's  uncle,  B.  T.  Kimball,  and  his  three 
sons  undertook  to  sustain  the  anti-slavery  agi 
tator,  and  also  interrupter  of  church  services, 
in  the  meeting-house  on  Corser  Hill,  on  Sunday 
afternoon,  the  obnoxious  orator  was  removed 
by  force  at  the  order  of  the  justice  of  the 
peace.  In  the  disciplinary  measures  inaugu 
rated  by  the  church,  Mr.  Kimball  and  his 
three  sons  and  daughters  were  excommuni 
cated.  This  proved  an  unhappy  affair,  re 
sulting  in  great  bitterness  and  dissension. 

Carleton  thus  tells  his  own  story  of  amateur 
soldiering : 


3 8  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

"  Those  were  the  days  of  military  trainings. 
In  September,  1836,  came  the  mustering  of  the 
2  ist  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  militia.  My 
brother  Frederic  was  captain  of  the  light  in 
fantry.  I  played  first  the  triangle  and  then 
the  drum  in  his  company.  I  knew  all  the 
evolutions  laid  down  in  the  book.  The  boys 
of  Boscawen  formed  a  company  and  elected 
me  captain.  I  was  thirteen  years  old,  tull  of 
military  ardor.  I  drilled  them  in  a  few  evolu 
tions  till  they  could  execute  them  as  well  as 
the  best  soldiers  of  the  adult  companies.  We 
wore  white  frocks  trimmed  with  red  braid  and 
three-cornered  pasteboard  caps  with  a  bronzed 
eagle  on  the  front.  Muster  was  on  Corser 
Hill.  One  of  the  boys  could  squeak  out  a 
tune  on  the  fife.  One  boy  played  the  bass 
drum,  and  another  the  small  drum. 

"  We  had  a  great  surprise.  The  Bellows 
Falls  Band,  from  Walpole,  New  Hampshire, 
was  travelling  to  play  at  musters,  and  as  none 
of  the  adult  companies  hired  them,  they  of 
fered  their  services  to  us  free. 

"  My  company  paraded  in  rear  of  the  meet 
ing-house.  My  brother,  with  the  light  infantry, 
was  the  first  company  at  drill.  He  had  two 


The  Days  of  Homespun  39 

fifes  and  drums.  Nearly  all  the  companies 
were  parading,  but  the  regimental  line  had 
not  been  formed  when  we  made  our  appear 
ance.  What  a  commotion  !  It  was  a  splen 
did  band  of  about  fifteen  members,  —  two 
trombones,  cornets,  bugles,  clarionets,  fife. 
No  other  company  had  more  than  fifes  or 
clarionets.  It  was  a  grand  crash  which  the  band 
gave.  The  next  moment  the  people  were  as 
tonished  to  see  a  company  of  boys  marching 
proudly  upon  the  green,  —  up  and  down, — 
changing  front,  marching  by  files,  in  echelon, 
by  platoons. 

"  We  took  our  place  in  line  on  the  field,  were 
inspected,  reviewed,  and  complimented  by  Maj.- 
Gen.  Anthony  Colby,  afterwards  governor  of 
the  State. 

"  When  I  gave  the  salute,  the  crowd  ap 
plauded.  It  was  the  great  day  of  all  others  in 
my  boyhood.  Several  of  the  farmers  gave  us 
a  grand  dinner.  In  the  afternoon  we  took 
part  in  the  sham  fight  with  our  little  cannon, 
and  covered  ourselves  with  glory  —  against 
the  big  artillery. 

"  I  think  that  I  manifested  good  common 
sense  when,  at  the  close  of  the  day,  I  com- 


4O  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

plimented  the  soldiers  on  their  behavior,  and 
resigned  my  commission.  I  knew  that  we 
could  never  attain  equal  glory  again,  and  that 
it  was  better  to  resign  when  at  the  zenith  of 
fame  than  to  go  out  as  a  fading  star." 


CHAPTER    IV 

POLITICS,    TRAVEL,    AND     BUSINESS 

LET    us    quote    again    from    Mr.    Coffin's 
autobiographical  notes  : 

"In  1836  my  father,  catching  the  specula 
tion  fever  of  the  period,  accompanied  by  my 
uncle  and  brother-in-law,  went  to  Illinois,  and 
left  quite  an  amount  of  money  for  the  pur 
chase  of  government  land.  My  father  owned 
several  shares  in  the  Concord  Bank.  The 
speculative  fever  pervaded  the  entire  commu 
nity, —  speculation  in  lands  in  Maine  and  in 
Illinois.  The  result  was  a  great  inflation  of 
prices, —  the  issuing  of  a  great  amount  of 
promises  to  pay,  with  a  grand  collapse  which 
brought  ruin  and  poverty  to  many  households. 
The  year  of  1838  was  one  of  great  distress. 
The  wheat  and  corn  crop  was  scant.  Flour 
was  worth  $16  a  barrel.  I  remember  going 
often  to  mill  with  a  grist  of  oats,  which  was 


41 


42  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

bolted  into  flour  for  want  of  wheat.  The 
Concord  Bank  failed,  —  the  Western  lands  were 
worthless.  Wool  could  not  be  sold,  and  the 
shearing  for  that  year  was  taken  to  the  town 
of  Nelson,  in  Cheshire  County,  and  manufac 
tured  into  satinets  and  cassimeres,  on  shares. 
One  of  the  pieces  of  cassimere  was  dyed  with 
a  claret  tinge,  from  which  I  had  my  first  Sun 
day  suit. 

"  Up  to  this  period,  nearly  all  my  clothing 
was  manufactured  in  the  family  loom  and 
cleaned  at  the  clothing  and  fulling  mill.  In 
very  early  boyhood,  my  Sunday  suit  was  a 
swallow-tailed  coat,  and  hat  of  the  stove-pipe 
pattern. 

"  The  year  1840  was  one  of  great  political 
excitement,  —  known  to  history  as  the  Log 
Cabin  and  Hard  Cider  Campaign.  General 
Harrison,  the  Whig  candidate,  was  popularly 
supposed  to  live  in  a  log  cabin  and  drink  hard 
cider.  On  June  iyth,  there  was  an  immense 
gathering  of  Whigs  at  Concord.  It  was  one 
of  the  greatest  days  of  my  life.  Six  weeks 
prior  to  that  date,  I  thought  of  nothing  but 
the  coming  event.  I  was  seventeen  years  old, 
with  a  clear  and  flexible  voice,  and  I  quickly 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business  43 

learned  the  Harrison  songs.  I  went  to  the 
convention  with  my  brothers  and  cousins,  in  a 
four-wheeled  lumber  wagon,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  with  a  white  banner,  having  the  words 
c  Boscawen  Whig  Delegation.'  We  had  flags, 
and  the  horses'  heads  labelled  c  Harrison  and 
Tyler.'  We  had  a  roasted  pig,  mince  pies, 
cakes,  doughnuts  and  cheese,  and  a  keg  of 
cider.  Before  reaching  Concord  we  were  joined 
by  the  log  cabin  from  Franklin,  with  coon 
skins,  bear  traps,  etc.,  dangling  from  its  sides. 
Boscawen  sent  nearly  every  Whig  voter  to  the 
meeting.  I  hurrahed  and  sung,  and  was  wild 
with  excitement.  I  remember  three  of  the 
speakers,  —  George  Wilson,  of  Keene,  Horace 
Greeley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  a 
young  man,  and  Henry  Wilson,  also  a  young 
man,  both  of  them  natives  of  New  Hampshire. 
Wilson  had  attended  school  with  my  brother  at 
the  academy  in  Concord,  in  1837,  then  having 
the  high-sounding  name  of  Concord  Literary 
Institute.  Wilson  was  a  shoemaker,  then  re 
siding  in  Natick,  Mass.,  and  was  known  as 
the  c  Natick  Cobbler.'  The  songs  have  nearly 
all  faded  from  memory.  I  recall  one  line  of 
our  description  of  the  prospective  departure 


44  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

of    Van     Buren's    cabinet    from     the   'White 
House : 

"  '  Let  each  as  we  go  take  a  fork  and  a  spoon.' 

"  There  was  one  entitled  c  Up  Salt   River/ 
—  descriptive  of  the  approaching  fate   of  the 
Democratic  party.     Another  ran  : 

"  «  Oh,  what  has  caused  this  great  commotion  the  country 

through  ? 

It  is  the  ball,  a  rolling  on 
For  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too.' 

"  Then  came  the  chorus : 

"  '  Van,  Van,  is  a  used-up  man.' 

"  In  1839,  I  naol  a  fancy  that  I  should  like 
to  be  a  merchant,  and  was  taken  to  Newbury- 
port  and  placed  with  a  firm  of  wholesale  and 
retail  grocers.  I  was  obliged  to  be  up  at  4.30, 
open  the  store,  care  for  the  horse,  curry  him, 
swallow  my  breakfast  in  a  hurry,  also  my  din 
ner  and  supper,  and  close  the  store  at  nine. 
It  was  only  an  experiment  on  my  part,  and 
after  five  weeks  of  such  life,  finding  that  I  was 
compelled  to  do  dishonest  work,  I  concluded 
that  I  never  would  attempt  to  be  a  princely 
merchant,  and  took  the  stage  for  home.  It 
was  a  delightful  ride  home  on  the  top  of  the 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business          45 

rocking  coach,  with  the  driver  lashing  his  whip 
and  his  horses  doing  their  best. 

"I  think  it  was  in  1841  that  Daniel  Web 
ster  attended  the  Merrimac  County  Agricul 
tural  Fair  at  Fisherville,  now  Penacook.  I 
was  there  with  a  fine  yoke  of  oxen  which  won 
his  admiration.  He  asked  me  as  to  their  age 
and  weight,  and  to  whom  they  belonged.  He 
recognized  nearly  all  of  his  old  acquaintances. 
I  saw  him  many  times  during  the  following 
year.  He  was  in  the  prime  of  life,  —  in  per 
sonal  appearance  a  remarkable  man." 

Thus  far  it  will  be  seen  that  there  was  little 
in  Mr.  Coffin's  life  and  surroundings  that  could 
not  be  easily  told  of  the  average  New  England 
youth.  Besides  summer  work  on  the  farm, 
and  "  chores  "  about  the  house,  he  had  taken 
several  terms  at  the  academy  in  Boscawen. 
During  the  winter  of  1841—42,  while  unable  to 
do  any  outdoor  work,  on  account  of  sickness, 
he  bought  a  text-book  on  land-surveying  and 
learned  something  of  the  science  and  art,  yet 
more  for  pastime  than  from  any  expectation  of 
making  it  useful. 

Nevertheless,  that  book  had  a  powerful  in 
fluence  upon  his  life.  It  gave  him  an  idea, 


46  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

through  the  application  of  measurement  to 
the  earth's  surface,  of  that  order  and  beauty  of 
those  mathematical  principles  after  which  the 
Creator  built  the  universe.  It  opened  his 
eyes  to  the  vast  modification  of  the  landscape, 
and  the  earth  itself,  by  man's  work  upon 
its  crust.  It  gave  him  the  engineer's  eye. 
Henceforth  he  became  interested  in  the  capac 
ity  of  every  portion  of  the  country,  which  came 
under  his  notice,  for  the  roads,  fields,  gardens, 
and  parks  of  peace,  and  for  the  making  of 
forts,  military  roads,  and  the  strategy  of  battle. 
In  a  word,  the  book  and  its  study  gave  him  an 
enrichment  of  life  which  fitted  him  to  enjoy 
the  world  by  travel,  and  to  understand  the 
arena  of  war,  —  theatres  of  usefulness  to  which 
Providence  was  to  call  him  in  after-life. 

In  August,  1843,  m  ms  twenty-first  year, 
he  became  a  student  at  Pembroke  Academy. 
The  term  of  ten  weeks  seemed  ever  afterwards 
in  his  memory  one  of  the  golden  periods  of 
his  life.  The  teacher,  Charles  G.  M.  Burn- 
ham,  was  enthusiastic  and  magnetic,  having 
few  rules,  and  placing  his  pupils  upon  their 
honor.  It  was  not  so  much  what  Carleton 
learned  from  books,  as  association  with  the  one 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business          47 

hundred  and  sixty  young  men  and  women  of 
his  own  age,  which  here  so  stimulated  him. 

From  the  academy  he  advanced  to  be  teacher 
of  the  district  school  on  Corser  Hill,  in  West 
Boscawen,  but  after  three  weeks  of  pedagogy 
was  obliged  to  leave  on  account  of  sickness. 
He  passed  the  remainder  of  the  winter  in  lum 
bering,  rising  at  4  A.  M.  to  feed  his  team  of 
horses.  While  breakfast  was  preparing  he 
studied  books,  ate  the  meal  by  candle-light, 
and  then  was  off  with  his  lunch  of  cold  meat, 
bread,  and  apple  pie.  From  the  woods  to  the 
bank  of  the  Merrimac  the  distance  was  three 
miles,  and  three  or  four  trips  were  made  daily 
in  drawing  the  long  and  heavy  logs  to  the 
water.  Returning  home  after  dark,  he  ate  sup 
per  by  candle-light,  fed  his  horses,  and  gave  an 
hour  to  study  before  bedtime. 

The  summer  of  1 844  was  one  of  hard  toil 
on  the  farm.  In  July  he  became  of  age,  and 
during  the  autumn  worked  on  his  brother-in- 
law's  farm,  rising  at  five  and  frequently  finish 
ing  about  9  P.  M.  It  is  no  wonder  that  all 
through  his  life  Mr.  Coffin  showed  a  deep 
sympathy,  born  of  personal  experience,  with 
men  who  are  bound  down  to  physical  toil. 


48  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

Nevertheless,  the  fine  arts  were  not  neglected. 
He  had  already  learned  to  play  the  "  sera- 
phine,"  the  instrument  which  has  been  devel 
oped  into  the  reed  organ.  He  started  the 
project,  in  1842,  of  getting  one  for  the  church. 
By  great  efforts  sixty  dollars  wrere  raised  and 
an  instrument  purchased  in  Concord.  Mr. 
Coffin  became  the  "  organist,"  and  also  taught 
singing  in  the  schoolhouse.  Three  of  his 
nieces,  excellent  singers,  assisted  him. 

The  time  had  now  come  for  the  young  man 
to  strike  out  in  the  world  for  himself.  Like 
most  New  England  youth,  his  eyes  were  on 
Boston.  With  a  recommendation  from  his 
friend,  the  minister,  he  took  the  stage  to  Con 
cord.  The  next  day  he  was  in  Boston,  then 
a  city  of  75,000  people,  with  the  water  dashing 
against  the  embankment  of  Charles  Street,  op 
posite  the  Common,  and  with  only  one  road 
leading  out  to  Roxbury.  Sloops  and  schooners, 
loaded  with  coal  and  timber,  sailed  over  the 
spot  where  afterwards  stood  his  house,  at  No. 
8 1  Dartmouth  Street.  In  a  word,  the  "  Back 
Bay"  and  "South  End"  were  then  unknown. 
Boston  city,  shaped  like  a  pond  lily  laid  flat, 
had  its  long  stem  reaching  to  the  solid  land 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business  49 

southward  on  the  Dorchester  and  Roxbury 
hills. 

Young  Carleton  went  to  Mount  Vernon 
Church  on  Ashburton  Place,  the  pastor,  Dr.  E. 
N.  Kirk,  being  in  the  prime  of  his  power,  and 
the  church  crowded.  The  country  boy  from 
New  Hampshire  became  a  member  of  the  choir 
and  enjoyed  the  Friday  night  rehearsals.  He 
found  employment  at  one  dollar  a  day  in  a 
commission  store,  84  Utica  Street,  with  the 
firm  of  Lowell  &  Hinckley.  The  former,  a 
brother  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  had  a  son, 
a  bright  little  boy,  who  afterwards  became  the 
superb  cavalry  commander  at  the  battle  of 
Cedar  Creek  in  1864.  Carleton  boarded  on 
Beacon  Street,  next  door  to  the  present  Athe 
naeum  Building.  The  firm  dissolved  by  Mr. 
Lowell's  entering  the  Athenaeum.  Carleton 
returned  to  his  native  town  to  vote.  He 
became  a  farm  laborer  with  his  brother-in-law, 
passing  a  summer  of  laborious  toil,  frequently 
fourteen  and  sixteen  hours,  with  but  little 
rest. 

It  was  time  now  for  the  old  Granite  State  to 
be  opened  by  the  railway.  The  Northern 
Railroad  had  been  chartered,  and  preliminary 


50  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

surveys  were  to  be  made.  Young  Carleton, 
seizing  the  opportunity,  went  to  Franklin,  saw 
the  president,  and  told  him  who  he  was.  He 
was  at  once  offered  a  position  as  chainman,  and 
told  to  report  two  weeks  later.  The  other 
chainman  gave  Carleton  the  leading  end,  in 
tending  that  the  Boscawen  boy,  and  not  him 
self,  should  drag  it  and  drive  the  stake. 
Carleton  did  not  object,  for  he  was  looking 
beyond  the  chain. 

The  compass-man  was  an  old  gentleman 
dim  of  eyesight  and  slow  of  action.  Young 
Carleton  drove  his  first  stake,  at  a  point  one 
hundred  feet  north  of  the  Concord  railway 
depot,  which  was  opened  in  the  month  of 
August,  1845.  The  old  compass-man  then 
set  his  compass  for  a  second  sight,  but  before 
he  could  get  out  his  spectacles  and  put  them 
on,  young  Carleton  read  the  point  to  him. 
When,  through  his  glasses,  the  old  gentleman 
had  verified  the  reading,  he  was  delighted. 
Promotion  for  Carleton  was  now  sure.  Before 
night  he  was  not  only  dragging  the  chain,  but 
was  sighting  the  instrument.  The  result,  two 
days  later,  was  promotion  to  the  charge  of  the 
party.  What  he  had  learned  of  land  survey- 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business  51 

ing  was  producing  its  fruit.  In  the  autumn 
he  was  employed  as  the  head  of  a  party  to 
make  the  preliminary  survey  of  the  Concord 
and  Portsmouth  road. 

Unfortunately,  during  this  surveying  cam 
paign,  he  received  a  wound  which  caused 
slight  permanent  lameness  and  disqualified  him 
for  military  service.  It  came  about  in  this 
way.  He  was  engaged  in  some  work  while  an 
axe-man  behind  him  was  chopping  away  some 
bushes  and  undergrowth.  The  latter  gave  a 
swing  of  the  axe  which  came  out  too  far  and  cut 
through  the  boot  and  large  tendon  of  Carle- 
ton's  left  ankle.  With  skilled  medical  atten 
tion,  rest,  and  care,  the  wound  would  have 
soon  healed  up,  but  owing  to  lack  of  skill, 
and  to  carelessness  and  exposure,  the  wound 
gave  him  considerable  trouble,  and  once  re 
opened.  In  after-life,  when  overwearied,  this 
part  of  the  limb  was  very  troublesome. 

It  was  not  all  toil  for  Carleton.  The  time 
of  love  had  already  come,  and  the  days  of 
marriage  were  not  far  off.  The  object  of  his 
devotion  was  Miss  Sally  Russell  Farmer,  the 
daughter  of  Colonel  John  Farmer,  of  Bos- 
cawen.  On  February  18,  1846,  amid  the  win- 


52  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ter  winds,  the  fire  of  a  holy  union  for  life  was 
kindled,  and  its  glow  was  unflickering  during 
more  than  fifty  years.  In  ancestry  and  rela 
tionship,  the  Farmers  of  Boscawen  were  allied 
with  the  Russells  of  England,  —  Sir  William, 
of  bygone  centuries,  and  Lord  John,  of  our 
own  memory.  Carleton  found  a  true  "  help 
meet  "  in  Sally  Coffin.  Though  no  children 
ever  came  to  bless  their  union,  it  was  as  per 
fect,  though  even  more  hallowed  and  beauti 
fied,  on  the  day  it  was  severed,  as  when  first 
begun. 

The  following  summer  was  one  full  of  days 
of  toil  in  the  engineering  department  of  the 
Northern  railway,  Carleton  being  engaged 
upon  the  first  section  to  be  opened  from 
Concord  to  Franklin.  The  engineering  was 
difficult,  and  the  work  heavy.  Breakfast 
was  eaten  at  six  in  the  morning,  and  din 
ner  wherever  it  could  be  found  along  the 
road.  Seldom  could  the  young  engineer 
rise  from  his  arithmetical  calculations  until 
midnight. 

Weary  with  such  exacting  mental  and  physi 
cal  labor,  he  resigned  his  position,  and  became 
a  contractor.  First  he  supplied  the  Concord 


Politics,  Travel,  and  Business  53 

railroad  with  200,000  feet  of  lumber,  which 
he  purchased  at  the  various  mills.  This  ven 
ture  being  profitable,  he  engaged  in  the  lumber 
trade,  furnishing  beams  for  a  large  factory, 
timber  for  a  new  railway  station  at  Concord, 
and  for  a  ship  at  Medford.  It  was  while 
transacting  some  business  in  Lowell,  that  he 
saw  President  Polk,  James  Buchanan,  Levi 
Woodbury,  and  other  political  magnates  of 
the  period,  who,  however,  were  rather  coldly 
received  on  account  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  war  with  Mexico. 

Wishing  for  a  home  of  his  own,  Carleton 
now  bought  a  farm  in  West  Boscawen,  and 
began  housekeeping  in  the  following  Novem 
ber.  He  carried  on  extensive  lumber  opera 
tions,  hiring  a  large  number  of  men  and  teams. 
He  rose  between  four  and  five  in  the  morning, 
and  was  in  the  woods,  four  miles  away,  at 
sunrise,  working  through  the  day,  and  reach 
ing  home  after  dark  to  care  for  the  cattle  and 
horses  and  milk  the  cows.  None  of  his  men 
worked  harder  than  he. 

Although  railroad  building  stimulated  prices 
and  gave  activity  to  business  men,  the  flush 
times  were  followed  by  depression.  To  secure 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


the  construction  of  a  railway  to  the  mast  yard, 
Carleton  subscribed  to  the  stock,  and,  under 
the  individual  liability  law  of  that  period,  was 
compelled  to  take  as  much  more  to  relieve  the 
company  from  debt.  Soon  he  found,  however, 
in  spite  of  hard  work  for  both  himself  and  his 
wife,  that  farming  and  lumbering  together  ren 
dered  no  adequate  returns.  Relief  to  mind 
and  body  was  found  in  the  weekly  arrival  of 
LittelVs  Living  Age  and  two  or  three  weekly 
papers,  in  agricultural  meetings  at  Concord  and 
Manchester,  and  in  the  formation  of  the  State 
Agricultural  Society,  of  which  Carleton  was  one 
of  the  founders. 


CHAPTER   V 

ELECTRICITY    AND    JOURNALISM 

THE  modern  age  of  electricity  was  ushered 
in  during  Mr.  Coffin's  early  manhood. 
The  telegraph,  which  has  given  the  world  a 
new  nervous  system,  being  less  an  invention 
than  an  evolution,  had  from  the  labors  of  Prof. 
Joseph  Henry,  in  Albany,  and  of  Wheatstone, 
of  England,  become,  by  Morse's  invention  of 
the  dot-and-line  alphabet,  a  far-off  writer  by 
which  men  could  annihilate  time  and  distance. 
One  of  the  first  to  experiment  with  the  new 
power  —  old  as  eternity,  but  only  slowly  re 
vealed  to  man — was  Carleton's  brother-in-law, 
Prof.  Moses  G.  Farmer,  whose  services  to  sci 
ence  have  never  yet  been  adequately  set  forth. 
This  inventor  in  1851  invited  Mr.  Coffin  to 
leave  the  farm  temporarily,  to  construct  a  line 
of  wire  connecting  the  telegraphs  of  Boston 
with  the  Cambridge  observatory,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  giving  uniform  time  to  the  railroads. 

55 


56  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

In  this  Carleton  was  so  successful  that,  in  the 
winter  and  spring  of  1852,  he  was  employed 
by  Mr.  Moses  Farmer  to  construct  the  tele 
graph  fire  alarm,  which  had  been  invented  by 
his  brother-in-law.  The  work  was  completed 
in  the  month  of  May,  and  Charles  Carleton 
Coffin  gave  the  first  alarm  of  fire  ever  trans 
mitted  by  the  electric  apparatus.  The  system 
was  a  great  curiosity,  and  many  distinguished 
men  of  this  country,  and  from  Europe,  espe 
cially  from  Russia  and  France,  came  to  inspect 
its  working. 

Commodore  Charles  Wilkes,  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  who  had  returned  from  his  bril 
liant  expedition  in  Antarctic  regions,  but  who 
had  not  yet  made  himself  notorious  by  a 
capture  of  the  Confederate  commissioners, 
proposed  to  use  this  electric  system  in  ascer 
taining  the  velocity  of  sound.  Cannon  were 
stationed  at  various  points,  the  Navy  Yard,  Fort 
Constitution,  South  Boston,  and  at  the  Observ 
atory,  in  front  of  which  was  an  apparatus  and 
telegraph  connecting  with  the  central  office. 
Each  cannon,  when  fired,  heated  the  circuit. 
Each  listener  at  the  various  points  was  to  snap 
a  circuit  key  the  moment  the  sound  reached 


Electricity  and  Journalism  57 

him.  In  the  central  office  was  a  chronograph 
which  registered  each  discharge  in  succession. 
The  distances  from  each  cannon  muzzle  had 
been  obtained  by  triangulation.  In  the  calm, 
still  night,  Commodore  Wilkes  and  Professor 
Farmer  stood  in  the  cupola  of  the  State  House 
with  the  chronograph,  holding  their  watches, 
and  noting  the  successive  flashes. 

The  experiments  were  not  very  satisfactory. 
Mr.  Coffin,  perhaps,  possibly,  because  he  was 
not  a  skilled  artillerist,  had  the  mortifying  ex 
perience  of  seeing  the  apparatus  in  front  of  his 
cannon  blown  into  fragments,  but  he  made 
notes  of  the  other  reports.  After  a  series  of 
trials,  the  approximate  result  was  obtained, 
that  in  a  moderately  humid  atmosphere  the 
velocity  of  sound  was  a  little  under  nine 
hundred  feet  per  second. 

The  exactions  of  the  fire  alarm  service, 
owing  to  its  crude  construction,  which  com 
pelled  the  attendants  to  be  ever  on  the  alert, 
told  severely  on  Carleton's  nervous  system. 
He  therefore  resigned  in  October,  and  went 
to  Cincinnati  to  get  the  system  introduced 
there.  Herds  of  hogs  then  roamed  the 
streets,  picking  up  their  living  around  the 


58  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

grain  houses,  and  in  the  gutters.  After 
three  weeks  of  exhibition  and  canvassing,  he 
found  that  Cincinnati  was  not  yet  ready  for 
such  a  novelty,  and  so  he  returned  to  Boston. 

The  following  winter  was  passed  in  Boscawen 
without  financially  remunerative  employment, 
but  in  earnest  study,  though  in  the  spring  a 
supply  of  money  came  pleasantly  and  unex 
pectedly.  He  undertook  to  negotiate  a  patent 
for  an  invention  of  Professor  Farmer's,  and 
after  considerable  time  disposed  of  it  to  a 
New  York  gentleman.  Carleton's  net  profits 
were  $1,850. 

This  was  an  immense  sum  to  him,  and  he 
once  more  resolved  to  try  Boston,  and  did  so. 
He  made  his  home,  however,  in  Maiden,  rent 
ing  half  of  a  small  house  on  Washington  Street. 
Having  inked  his  pen  on  agricultural  subjects, 
descriptive  pieces,  and  even  on  a  few  poems, 
he  took  up  newspaper  work.  Entering  the 
office  of  the  Boston  Journal^  he  worked  with 
out  pay,  giving  the  Journal  three  months' 
service  in  writing  editorials,  and  reporting 
meetings.  This  was  simply  to  educate  him 
self  as  a  journalist.  At  that  time  very  few 
reporters  were  employed  on  the  daily  papers. 


Electricity  and  Journalism  59 

What  he  says  of  this  work  had  better  be  told 
in  his  own  words  : 

"  It  was  three  months  of  hard  study  and 
work.  I  saw  that  what  the  public  wanted  was 
news  in  condensed  form ;  that  the  day  for  stately 
editorials  was  passing  away ;  that  short  state 
ments  and  arguments,  which  went  like  an  ar 
row  straight  to  the  mark,  were  what  the  public 
would  be  likely  to  read.  I  formed  my  style 
of  writing  with  that  in  view.  I  avoided  long 
sentences.  I  thought  that  I  went  too  far  in 
the  other  direction  and  clipped  my  sentences 
too  short,  and  did  not  give  sufficient  ornamen 
tation,  but  I  determined  to  use  words  of  Saxon 
rather  than  of  Latin  or  Norman  origin,  to  use 
'begin/  instead  of 'commence/  as  stronger  and 
more  forcible. 

"  I  selected  the  speeches  of  Webster,  Lord 
Erskine,  Burke,  and  other  English  writers,  for 
careful  analysis,  but  soon  discarded  Brougham 
and  Burke.  I  derived  great  benefit  from 
Erskine  and  Webster,  for  incisive  and  strong 
statement,  —  also  Shakespeare  and  Milton. 
At  that  time  I  read  again  and  again  the 
rhapsodies  of  Christopher  North,  Professor 
Wilson,  and  the  (  Noctes  Ambrosianae/  and 


60  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

found  great  delight,  also,  in  reading  Bryant's 
poems. 

"  It  was  the  period  of  white  heat  in  the  anti- 
slavery  struggle,  when  the  public  heard  the 
keenest  debates,  the  sharpest  invective.  At 
an  anti-slavery  meeting  the  red-hot  lava  was 
always  on  the  flow.  The  anti-slavery  men 
were  like  anthracite  in  the  furnace,  —  red  hot, 
—  white  hot,  —  clear  through.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  the  sharpness  and  ruggedness  of 
my  writing  is  due,  in  some  degree,  to  the  curt, 
sharp  statements  of  that  period.  When  men 
were  feeling  so  intensely,  and  speaking  with 
a  force  and  earnestness  unknown  in  these  later 
years,  a  reporter  would  insensibly  take  on  some 
thing  of  the  spirit  of  the  hour,  otherwise  his 
reports  would  be  limp  and  lifeless.  I  was  in 
duced  to  study  stenography,  but  the  system 
then  in  use  was  complex  and  inadequate,  — 
hard  to  learn.  I  was  informed  by  several 
stenographers  that  if  I  wanted  a  condensed 
report  it  would  be  far  better  to  give  the 
spirit,  rather  than  attempt  the  letter." 

During  the  summer  of  1854,  Mrs.  Coffin 
being  in  poor  health,  they  visited  Saratoga  to 
gether,  passed  several  weeks  at  the  Springs,  and 


Electricity  and  Journalism  61 

visited  the  battle-field  where  his  grandfather, 
Eliphalet  Kilborn,  had  fought.  Carleton 
picked  up  a  bullet  just  uncovered  by  the  plow, 
and  in  that  bright  and  beautiful  summer's  day 
the  whole  scene  of  1777  came  back  before  him. 
From  the  author's  map  in  "  Burgoyne's  De 
fence,"  giving  a  meagre  sketch  of  the  battle, 
he  was  able  to  retrace  the  general  lines  of  the 
American  breastworks.  This  was  the  first  of 
scores  of  careful  study  on  the  spot  and  repro 
duction  in  imagination  of  famous  battles,  which 
Carleton  made  and  enjoyed  during  his  life. 

He  was  also  present  at  the  International 
Exhibition  in  New  York,  seeing,  on  the  open 
ing  day,  President  Franklin  Pierce  and  his 
Cabinet.  The  popular  idol  of  the  hour  was 
General  Winfield  Scott,  of  an  imposing  per 
sonal  appearance  which  was  set  off  by  a  showy 
uniform.  He  was  the  hero  of  the  two  wars, 
and  expected  to  be  President.  In  personal 
vanity,  in  bravery,  and  in  military  science,  Scott 
was  without  a  superior,  one  of  the  ablest  offi 
cers  whose  names  adorn  the  long  and  brilliant 
roll  of  the  United  States  regular  army. 

Carleton  wrote  of  General  Scott :  "  A  man 
of  great  egotism,  an  able  general,  but  who 


62  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

never  had  any  chance  of  an  election.  He  was 
the  last  candidate  of  a  dying  political  party 
which  never  was  aggressive  and  which  was 
going  down  under  the  slave  power,  to  which 
it  had  allied  itself." 

Mr.  Coffin  writes  further :  "  The  passage  of 
the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850  gave  great 
offence  to  the  radical  wing  of  the  anti-slavery 
party.  The  members  of  that  wing  were  very 
bitter  towards  Daniel  Webster  for  his  part  in 
its  passage.  I  was  heart  and  soul  in  sympathy 
with  the  grand  idea  of  anti-slavery,  but  did  not 
believe  in  fierce  denunciation  as  the  best  argu 
ment.  I  did  not  like  the  compromise,  and 
hated  the  odious  fugitive  slave  law,  but  I  never 
theless  believed  that  Mr.  Webster  was  sincere 
in  his  desire  to  avert  impending  trouble.  I 
learned  from  Hon.  G.  W.  Nesmith,  of  Frank 
lin,  president  of  the  Northern  railroad,  that 
Mr.  Webster  felt  very  keenly  the  assaults  upon 
him,  and  the  manifest  alienation  of  his  old 
friends.  Mr.  Nesmith  suggested  that  his  old- 
time  neighbors  in  Boscawen  and  Salisbury 
should  send  him  a  letter  expressive  of  their 
appreciation  of  his  efforts  to  harmonize  the 
country,  and  that  the  proper  person  to  write 


Electricity  and  Journalism  63 

the  letter  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Price,  ex-pastor  of 
the  Congregational  church  in  West  Boscawen, 
in  whom  the  county  had  great  confidence.  A 
few  days  later,  at  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Price, 
I  went  over  the  rough  draft  with  him  in  his 
study.  The  letter  was  circulated  for  signatures 
by  Worcester  Webster,  of  Boscawen,  distantly 
related  to  Daniel.  It  is  in  the  published  works 
of  the  great  statesman,  edited  by  Mr.  Everett, 
together  with  his  reply." 

In  May,  1854,  Carleton  saw  the  Potomac 
and  the  Capitol  at  Washington  for  the  first 
time.  The  enlargement  of  the  house  of  the 
National  Legislature  had  not  yet  begun.  He 
studied  the  paintings  in  the  rotunda,  which 
were  to  him  a  revelation  of  artistic  power. 
He  spent  a  long  time  before  Prof.  Robert 
W.  Weir's  picture  of  the  departure  of  the 
Pilgrims  for  Delfshaven. 

Here  are  some  of  his  impressions  of  the 
overgrown  village  and  of  the  characters  he 
met : 

c<  Washington  was  a  straggling  city,  thor 
oughly  Southern.  There  was  not  a  decent 
hotel.  The  National  was  regarded  as  the 
best.  Nearly  all  the  public  men  were  in 


64  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

boarding-houses.  I  stopped  at  the  Kirkwood, 
then  regarded  as  very  good.  The  furniture 
was  old ;  there  was  scarcely  a  whole  chair  in 
the  parlor  or  dining-room.  It  was  the  period 
of  the  Kansas  struggle.  The  passions  of  men 
were  at  a  white  heat.  The  typical  Southern 
man  wore  a  broad-brimmed  felt  hat.  Many 
had  long  hair  and  loose  flowing  neckties. 
There  was  insolence  and  swagger  in  their 
deportment  towards  Northern  men. 

"  I  spent  much  time  in  the  gallery  of  the 
Senate.  Thomas  Benton,  of  Missouri,  was 
perhaps  the  most  notable  man  in  the  Senate. 
Slidell,  of  Louisiana,  whom  I  had  seen  in 
New  Hampshire  the  winter  before,  speaking 
for  the  Democracy,  and  Toombs,  of  Georgia, 
were  strongly  marked  characters.  Toombs 
made  a  speech  doubling  up  his  fists  as  if  about 
to  knock  some  one  down." 

From  Washington,  Carleton  went  to  Har- 
risburg,  noticing,  as  he  passed  over  the  railway, 
the  difference  between  free  and  slave  territory. 
"  A  half  dozen  miles  from  the  boundary 
between  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  was  suf 
ficient  to  change  the  characteristics  of  the 
country."  The  Pennsylvania  railway  had  just 


Electricity  and  Journalism  65 

been  opened,  and  Altoona  was  just  starting. 
Carleton  visited  the  iron  and  other  industries 
at  Pittsburg,  and  described  his  journey  and 
impressions  in  a  series  of  letters  to  the  Boston 
Journal.  Having  inherited  from  his  father 
eighty  acres  of  land  in  Central  Illinois,  near 
the  town  of  Lincoln,  he  went  out  to  visit  it. 
At  Chicago,  a  bustling  place  of  25,000  inhabi 
tants,  he  found  the  mud  knee-deep.  Great 
crowds  of  emigrants  were  arriving  and  depart 
ing.  Going  south  to  La  Salle  he  took  steamer 
on  the  Illinois  River  to  Peoria,  reaching  there 
Saturday  night.  Not  willing  to  travel  on  Sun 
day,  he  went  ashore.  After  attending  service 
at  church,  he  asked  the  privilege  of  playing  on 
the  organ.  A  few  minutes  later,  he  found  a 
large  audience  listening  with  apparent  pleasure. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE    REPUBLICAN     PARTY    AND    ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 

THE  time  had  now  come  for  the  forma 
tion  of  a  new  political  party,  and  in  this 
Carleton  had  a  hand,  being  at  the  first  meeting 
and  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  leading 
men,  Henry  Wilson,  Anson  Burlingame, 
George  S.  Boutwell,  N.  P.  Banks,  Charles 
Sumner,  and  others.  His  connection  with  the 
press  brought  him  into  personal  contact  with 
men  of  all  parties.  He  found  Edward  Ever 
ett  more  sensitive  to  criticism  than  any  other 
public  man. 

In  1856  Carleton  was  offered  a  position  on 
the  AtlaS)  which  had  been  the  leading  Whig 
paper  in  Massachusetts.  He  attended  the 
first  great  Republican  gathering  ever  held  in 
Maine,  at  Portland,  at  which  Hannibal  Ham- 
lin,  Benjamin  Wade,  and  N.  P.  Banks  were 
speakers.  On  the  night  of  the  Maine  elec 
tion,  which  was  held  in  August,  as  the  returns, 

66 


The  Republican   Party  67 

which  gave  the  first  great  victory  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  the  Fremont  campaign, 
thrilled  the  young  editor,  he  wrote  a  head-line 
which  was  copied  all  over  the  country, —  "  Be 
hold  How  Brightly  Breaks  the  Morning." 

In  Maiden,  where  he  was  then  residing,  a 
Fremont  Club  was  formed.  Carleton  wrote 
a  song,  to  the  melody  "  Suoni  La  Tromba," 
from  one  of  the  operas  then  much  admired, 
which  was  sung  by  the  glee  men  in  the  club. 
Political  enthusiasm  rose  to  fever  heat.  In 
the  columns  of  the  Atlas  are  many  editorials 
which  came  seething  hot  from  Carleton's  brain, 
during  the  campaign  which  elevated  Mr.  James 
Buchanan  to  the  presidency. 

When  the  storm  of  politics  had  subsided, 
Carleton  wrote  a  series  of  articles  for  an  edu 
cational  periodical,  The  Student  and  School 
mate.  Inspired  by  his  attendance  on  the 
meetings  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  he  penned  a  series  of 
astronomical  articles  for  The  Congregationalist. 
He  also  attended  the  opening  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  railroad  from  Montreal  to  Toronto, 
celebrated  by  a  grand  jubilee  at  Montreal. 
During  the  winter,  when  Elihu  Burritt,  the 


68  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

learned  blacksmith,  failed  to  appear  on  the 
lecture  platform,  Carleton  was  called  upon  at 
short  notice  to  give  his  lecture  entitled  "  The 
Savage  and  the  Citizen." 

He  was  welcomed  with  applause,  which  he 
half  suspected  was  in  derision.  At  the  end,  he 
received  ten  dollars  and  a  vote  of  thanks.  The 
lecture  system  was  then  just  beginning,  and 
its  bright  stars,  Phillips,  Holmes,  Whipple, 
Beecher,  Gough,  and  Curtis  were  then  mount 
ing  the  zenith. 

Carleton  made  another  trip  West  in  1857, 
seeing  the  Mississippi,  when  the  railway 
was  completed  from  Cincinnati  to  St.  Louis. 
When  the  crowd  was  near  degenerating  into  a 
drunken  mob,  —  the  native  wine  of  Missouri 
being  served  free  to  everybody,  —  the  com 
mittee  in  charge  cut  off  the  supply  of  drink, 
and  thus  saved  a  riot.  From  St.  Louis  he 
went  to  Liverpool,  on  the  Illinois  River,  to  see 
about  his  land  affairs.  He  enjoyed  hugely  the 
strange  frontier  scenes,  meals  in  log  cabins,  and 
the  trial  of  a  case  in  court,  which  was  in  a 
schoolroom  lighted  by  two  tallow  candles. 

The  Boston  Atlas^  unable  to  hold  up  the 
world,  had  summoned  the  Bee  to  its  aid,  yet 


The  Republican  Party  69 

did  not  even  then  stand  on  a  paying  basis. 
Finally  it  became  absorbed  in  the  Boston 
Traveller.  Carleton  again  entered  the  service 
of  the  Boston  Journal  as  reporter.  Yet  life 
was  a  hard  struggle.  Through  the  years  1857, 
1858,  1 8 59, Carleton  was  floating  around  among 
the  newspapers  getting  a  precarious  living, — 
hardly  a  living.  He  wrote  a  few  stories  for 
Putnam's  Magazine*  for  one  of  which  he  was 

o 

paid  ten  dollars.  One  of  the  bright  spots  in 
this  period  of  uncertainty  was  his  attendance, 
at  Springfield  and  Newport,  upon  the  meet 
ings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad 
vancement  of  Science.  He  also  became  more 
or  less  acquainted  with  men  who  were  after 
wards  governors  of  Massachusetts,  or  United 
States  senators,  with  John  Brown  and  Stephen 
A.  Douglas. 

The  political  campaign  which  resulted  in  the 
election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  presidency 
is  described  in  Mr.  Coffin's  own  words: 

"During  the  winter  of  1859,  George  W. 
Gage,  proprietor  of  the  Tremont  House  at 
Chicago,  visited  Boston.  I  had  known  him 
many  years.  Being  from  the  West,  I  asked 
him  who  he  thought  would  be  acceptable  to 


yo  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

the  Republicans  of  the  West  as  candidate  for 
the  presidency.  The  names  prominently  be 
fore  the  country  were  those  of  W.  H.  Seward, 
S.  P.  Chase,  Edward  Bates,  and  J.  C.  Fremont. 

"  £  We  shall  elect  whomsoever  we  nominate,' 
said  Mr.  Gage.  c  The  Democratic  party  is 
going  to  split.  The  Northern  and  Western 
Democrats  will  go  for  Douglas.  The  slave 
holders  never  will  accept  him.  The  Whig 
party  is  but  a  fragment.  There  will  certainly 
be  three,  if  not  four  candidates,  and  the  Re 
publican  party  can  win.  We  think  a  good 
deal  of  old  Abe  Lincoln.  He  would  make  a 
strong  candidate.' 

"It  was  the  first  time  I  had  heard  the  name 
of  Lincoln  in  connection  with  the  presidency. 
I  knew  there  was  such  a  man.  Being  a  jour 
nalist,  I  had  some  knowledge  of  his  debate 
with  Douglas  on  the  great  questions  of  the 
day,  but  he  had  been  defeated  in  his  canvass 
for  the  Senate,  and  had  dropped  out  of  sight. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  he  gave  his  lecture 
at  Cooper  Institute,  New  Haven,  and  Nor 
wich.  I  did  not  meet  him  in  Boston.  His 
coming  created  no  excitement.  The  aristoc 
racy  of  Boston,  including  Robert  C.  Winthrop, 


The   Republican   Party  71 

Edward  Everett,  George  S.  Milliard,  and  that 
class,  were  Whigs,  who  did  not  see  the  trend 
of  events.  Lincoln  came  and  went,  having 
little  recognition.  The  sentiment  of  Massa 
chusetts  Republicans  was  all  in  favor  of  the 
nomination  of  Seward. 

uThe  remark  of  Mr.  Gage  in  regard  to 
Lincoln  set  me  to  thinking  upon  the  probable 
outcome  of  the  presidential  contest.  The  en 
thusiasm  of  the  Republican  party  was  at  fever 
heat.  The  party  had  nearly  succeeded  in  1856, 
under  Fremont,  and  the  evidences  of  success 
in  1860  multiplied,  as  the  days  for  nominating 
a  candidate  approached.  The  disruption  of 
the  Democratic  party  at  Charleston  made  the 
election  of  the  Republican  candidate  certain. 

"I  determined  to  attend  the  Convention  to 
be  held  at  Chicago,  and  also  that  of  the  Whig 
party,  to  be  held  earlier  at  Baltimore. 

"I  visited  Washington  and  made  the  ac 
quaintance  of  many  of  the  leading  Republican 
members  of  Congress.  Senator  Wilson  gave 
me  a  seat  on  one  of  the  sofas  in  the  south 
chamber.  He  was  sitting  by  my  side  when 
Seward  appeared.  He  stopped  a  moment  in 
the  passage,  and  leaned  against  the  wall. 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


"'There  is  our  next  President/  said  Wilson. 
'He  feels  that  he  is  to  be  nominated  and 
elected.  He  shows  it.' 

"It  was  evident  that  Mr.  Seward  was  con 
scious  of  the  expected  honor.  It  did  not  dis 
play  itself  in  haughty  actions,  but  in  a  fitting 
air  of  dignity.  He  knew  the  galleries  were 
looking  down  upon  him,  men  were  pointing 
him  out,  nodding  their  heads.  He  was  the 
coming  man." 

The  Whig  Convention  in  Baltimore,  which 
Carleton  attended,  "  was  held  in  an  old  church 
from  which  the  worshippers  had  departed,  — '-  a 
fitting  place  to  hold  it.  The  people  had  left 
the  Whig  party,  which  had  departed  from  its 
principles  and  was  ready  to  compromise  still 
further  in  slavery." 

On  leaving  Baltimore  for  Chicago,  and  con 
versing  with  people  everywhere,  Carleton  dis 
covered  in  Pennsylvania  a  hostility  to  Seward 
which  he  had  not  found  elsewhere.  It  was 
geographical  antagonism,  New  York  glorying 
in  being  the  Empire  State,  and  Pennsylvania  in 
being  the  Keystone  of  the  arch.  "  Pennsyl 
vania  could  not  endure  the  thought  of  having 
New  York  lead  the  procession."  Arriving 


The   Republican   Party  73 

in  Chicago  several  days  before  the  Convention 
opened,  Carleton  noticed  a  growing  disposition 
to  take  a  Western  man.  The  contest  was  to 
be  between  Seward  and  Lincoln.  On  the  sec 
ond  day  the  New  York  crowd  tried  to  make  a 
tremendous  impression  with  bands  and  ban 
ners.  Entering  the  building,  they  found  it 
packed  with  the  friends  of  Lincoln.  Carleton 
sat  at  a  table  next  to  Thurlow  Weed.  "When 
the  drawn  ballot  was  taken.  Weed,  pale  and 
excited,  thrust  his  thumbs  into  his  eyes  to 
keep  back  the  tears." 

Mr.  Coffin  must  tell  the  rest  of  the  story  : 
"  I  accompanied  the  committee  to  Spring 
field  to  notify  Lincoln  of  his  nomination. 
Ashman,  the  president  of  the  committee,  W. 
D.  Kelly,  of  Pennsylvania,  Amos  Jack,  of  New 
Hampshire,  Sweet,  of  Chicago,  and  others 
made  up  the  party.  We  went  down  the 
Illinois  Central.  It  was  a  hot,  dusty  ride. 
Reached  Springfield  early  in  the  evening. 
Had  supper  at  the  hotel  and  then  called  on 
Lincoln.  His  two  youngest  boys  were  on 
the  fence  in  front  of  the  house,  chaffing  some 
Democratic  urchins  in  the  street.  A  Douglas 
meeting  was  going  on  in  the  State  House, 


74  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

addressed,  as  I  learned,  by  A.  McClernand, — 
afterwards  major-general.  Lincoln  stood  in  the 
parlor,  dressed  in  black  frock  coat.  Ashman 
made  the  formal  announcement.  Lincoln's 
reply  was  brief.  He  was  much  constrained, 
but  as  soon  as  the  last  word  was  spoken  he 
turned  to  Kelly  and  said  : 

"c  Judge,  you  are  a  pretty  tall  man.  How 
tall  are  you  ? ' 

"  '  Six  feet  two/ 

U<I  beat  you.  I'm  six  feet  three  without 
my  high-heeled  boots  on.' 

"  '  Pennsylvania  bows  to  Illinois,  where  we 
have  been  told  there  were  only  Little  Giants,' 
said  Kelly,  gracefully  alluding  to  Douglas,  who 
was  called  the  Little  Giant. 

"  One  by  one  we  were  introduced  by  Mr. 
Ashman.  After  the  hand-shaking  was  over, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said : 

" (  Mrs.  Lincoln  will  be  pleased  to  see  you 
gentlemen  in  the  adjoining  room,  where  you 
will  find  some  refreshments.' 

"  We  passed  into  the  room  and  were  pre 
sented  to  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Her-  personal  ap 
pearance  was  not  remarkably  prepossessing. 
The  prevailing  fashion  of  the  times  was  a 


The   Republican   Party  75 

gown  of  voluminous  proportions,  over  an 
enormous  hoop.  The  corsage  was  cut  some 
what  low,  revealing  plump  shoulders  and  bust. 
She  wore  golden  bracelets.  Her  hair  was 
combed  low  about  the  ears.  She  evidently 
was  much  gratified  over  the  nomination,  but 
was  perfectly  ladylike  in  her  deportment. 

"  The  only  sign  of  refreshments  visible  was 
a  white  earthen  pitcher  filled  with  ice-water. 
Probably  it  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  little  joke,  for 
the  next  morning  I  learned  that  his  Republi 
can  neighbors  had  offered  to  furnish  wines  and 
liquor,  but  he  would  not  allow  them  in  the 
house  ;  that  his  Democratic  friends  also  sent 
round  baskets  of  champagne,  which  he  would 
not  accept. 

"  I  met  him  the  next  morning  in  his  law 
office,  also  his  secretary,  J.  G.  Nicolay.  It 
was  a  large,  square  room,  with  a  plain  pine 
table,  splint-bottomed  chairs,  law  books  in  a 
case,  and  several  bushels  of  newspapers  and 
pamphlets  dumped  in  one  corner.  It  had  a 
general  air  of  untidiness. 

"  During  the  campaign  I  reported  many 
meetings  for  the  Boston  Journal^  and  was  made 
night  editor  soon  after  Mr.  Lincoln's  election. 


76  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

The  position  was  very  laborious  and  exacting. 
It  was  the  period  of  secession.  Through  the 
live-long  night,  till  nearly  3  A.  M.,  I  sat  at 
my  desk  editing  the  exciting  news.  The  re 
porters  usually  left  the  room  about  eleven,  and 
from  that  time  to  the  hour  of  going  to  press, 
I  was  alone,  —  save  the  company  of  two  mice 
that  became  so  friendly  that  they  would  sit  on 
my  desk,  and  make  a  supper  of  crackers  and 
cheese,  which  I  doled  out  to  them.  I  remem 
ber  them  with  much  pleasure. 

"  The  exacting  labors  and  sleepless  nights 
told  upon  my  health.  The  disturbed  state 
of  the  country  made  everybody  in  business 
very  cautious,  so  much  so  that  the  proprietor 
of  the  Journal,  Charles  A.  Rogers,  began  to 
discharge  his  employees,  and  I  was  informed 
that  my  services  were  no  longer  needed.  I 
had  been  receiving  the  magnificent  sum  of  ten 
dollars  per  week,  and  this  princely  revenue 
ceased." 

After  President  Lincoln  had  been  inaugu 
rated,  Mr.  Coffin  went  to  Washington,  dur 
ing  the  last  week  in  March.  His  experiences 
there  must  be  told  by  himself: 

"  I    took    lodgings    at    a    private   boarding- 


The   Republican   Party  77 

house  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  where  there 
was  a  poverty-stricken  Virginian,  of  the  old 
Whig  school,  after  an  office.  He  did  'not 
think  his  State  would  secede.'  I  saw  much 
of  the  Republican  members  of  Congress,  who 
said  if  I  wanted  a  position  they  would  do  what 
they  could  for  me.  Senator  Sumner  suggested 
that  I  would  make  a  good  secretary  of  one  of 
the  Western  territories. 

"  I  called  upon  my  old  schoolmate  Sargeant 
who  had  been  for  many  years  in  the  Treasury. 
Having  constructed  the  telegraph  fire-alarm, 
and  done  something  in  engineering,  I  thought 
I  was  competent  to  become  an  examiner  in  the 
patent  office.  I  made  out  an  application,  which 
was  signed  by  the  entire  Massachusetts  delega 
tion,  recommending  me.  I  dropped  it  into 
the  post-office,  and  that  was  the  last  I  saw  or 
even  thought  of  it,  for  the  great  crisis  in  the 
history  of  the  country  was  so  rapidly  approach 
ing,  and  so  evident,  that, — newspaper  man  as  I 
was, — accustomed  to  forecast  coming  events, 
I  could  see  what  many  others  could  not  see. 

"  I  was  walking  with  Senator  Wilson  up  E 
Street,  on  a  bright  moonlight  night.  The 
moon's  rays,  falling  upon  the  unfinished 


78  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

dome  of  the  Capitol,  brought  the  building 
out  in  bold  relief." 

"  '  Will  it  ever  be  finished  ? '  I  asked.  The 
senator  stopped,  and  gazed  upon  it  a  moment 
in  silence. 

"  '  We  are  going  to  have  a  war,  but  the  peo 
ple  of  this  country  will  not  give  up  the  Union, 
I  think.  Yet,  to-day,  that  building,  prospec- 
tively,  is  a  pile  of  worthless  marble.' ' 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    WAR    CORRESPONDENT 

WHEN  the  long  gathering  clouds  broke 
in  the  storm  at  Sumter,  and  war  was 
precipitated  in  a  rain  of  blood,  Charles  Carle- 
ton  Coffin's  first  question  was  as  to  his  duty. 
He  was  thirty-seven  years  old,  healthy  and 
hearty,  though  not  what  men  would  usually 
call  robust.  To  him  who  had  long  learned  to 
look  into  the  causes  of  things,  who  knew  well 
his  country's  history,  and  who  had  been  edu 
cated  to  thinking  and  feeling  by  the  long  de 
bate  on  slavery,  the  Secession  movement  was 
nothing  more  or  less  than  a  slaveholders' 
conspiracy.  His  conviction  in  1861  was  the 
same  as  that  held  by  him,  when  more  than 
thirty  years  of  reflection  had  passed  by,  that 
the  inaugurators  of  the  Civil  War  of  1861-65 
were  guilty  of  a  gigantic  crime. 

In   1 86 1,  with  his  manhood  and  his  talent, 
the  question  was  not  on  which  side  duty  lay, 

79 


8o  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

or  whether  his  relation  to  the  question  should 
be  active  or  passive,  but  just  how  he  could 
most  and  best  give  himself  to  the  service  of 
his  country.  Whether  with  rifle  or  pen,  he 
would  do  nothing  less  than  his  best.  He 
inquired  first  at  the  recruiting  office  of  the 
army.  He  was  promptly  informed  that  on 
no  account  could  he  be  accepted  as  an  active 
soldier,  whether  private  or  officer,  on  account 
of  his  lame  heel.  Rejected  here,  he  thought 
that  some  other  department  of  public  service 
might  be  open  to  him  in  which  he  could  be 
more  or  less  directly  in  touch  with  the  sol 
diers.  While  uncertain  as  to  his  future  course, 
he  was,  happily  for  his  country,  led  to  consult 
his  old  friend,  Senator  Henry  Wilson,  who 
immediately  and  strenuously  advised  him  to 
give  up  all  idea  of  either  the  army,  the  hos 
pital,  the  clerical,  or  any  other  government 
service,  but  to  enter  at  once  actively  upon  the 
work  of  a  war  correspondent. 

"  Your  talent,"  said  Wilson,  "  is  with  the 
pen,  and  you  can  do  the  best  service  by  see 
ing  what  is  going  on  and  reporting  it." 

The  author  of  the  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Slave  Power  in  America"  intimated  that  truth, 


The   War  Correspondent  81 

accurately  told  and  published  throughout  the 
North,  was  not  only  extremely  valuable,  but 
absolutely  necessary.  It  would  not  take  long 
for  a  thoroughly  truthful  reporter  to  make 
himself  a  national  authority.  The  sympa 
thizers  with  disunion  would  be  only  too 
active  in  spreading  rumors  to  dishearten  the 
upholders  of  the  Union,  and  there  would  be 
need  for  every  honest  pen  and  voice. 

After  this  conversation,  Carleton  was  at 
peace.  He  would  find  his  work  and  ask  no 
other  blessedness.  But  how  to  find  it,  and  to 
win  his  place  as  a  recognized  writer  on  the 
field  was  a  question.  Within  our  generation, 
the  world  has  learned  the  value  of  the  war 
correspondent.  He  has  won  the  spurs  of  the 
knighthood  of  civilization.  He  wears  in  life 
the  laurel  wreath  of  fame.  He  is  respected  in 
his  calling.  He  goes  forth  as  an  apostle  of 
the  printed  truth.  The  resources  of  wealthy 
corporations  are  behind  him.  His  salary  is 
not  princely,  but  it  is  ample.  Though  he 
may  lose  limb  or  life,  he  is  honored  like  the 
soldier,  and  after  his  death,  the  monument 
rises  to  his  memory.  In  the  great  struggle 
between  France  and  Germany,  between  Russia 


82  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

and  Turkey,  between  Japan  and  China,  and  in 
the  minor  wars  of  European  Powers  against 
inferior  civilizations,  in  Asia  and  Africa,  the 
"war  correspondent"  has  been  a  striking  figure. 
He  is  not  the  creation  of  our  age;  but  our 
half  of  this  century,  having  greater  need  of 
him,  has  equipped  him  the  most  liberally. 
He  has  his  permanent  place  of  honor.  If  the 
newspaper  is  the  Woden  of  our  century  and 
civilization,  the  war  correspondent  and  the 
printer  are  the  twin  Ravens  that  sit  upon  his 
shoulder.  The  one  flies  afar  to  gather  the  news, 
the  other  sits  at  home  to  scatter  the  tidings. 

In  i  86 1  it  was  very  different.  The  idea  of 
spending  large  sums  of  money,  and  maintain 
ing  a  staff-corps  of  correspondents  who  on 
land  and  sea  should  follow  our  armies  and 
fleets,  and  utilize  horse,  rail  car,  and  telegraph, 
boat,  yacht,  and  steamer,  without  regard  to  ex 
pense,  had  not  seized  upon  newspaper  publish 
ers  in  the  Eastern  States.  Almost  from  the 
first,  the  great  New  York  journals  organized 
bureaus  for  the  collection  of  news.  With 
relays  of  stenographers,  telegraphers,  and  extra 
printers,  they  were  ready  for  all  emergencies  in 
the  home  office,  besides  liberally  endowing 


The  War  Correspondent  83 

their  agencies  at  Washington  and  cities  near 
the  front,  and  equipping  their  correspondent, 
in  camp  and  on  deck.  In  this,  the  New 
England  publishers  were  far  behind  those  on 
Manhattan  Island.  Carleton,  when  in  Wash 
ington,  wrote  his  first  letters  to  the  Boston 

O  ' 

Journal  and  took  the  risk  of  their  being  ac 
cepted  for  publication.  He  visited  the  camps, 
forts,  and  places  of  storage  of  government 
material.  He  described  the  preparations  for 
war  and  life  in  Washington  with  such  spirit 
and  graphic  power,  that  from  June  15  to 
July  17,  1861,  no  fewer  than  twenty-one  of 
his  letters  were  published  in  the  Journal. 

The  great  battle  of  Bull  Run  gave  him  his 
opportunity.  As  an  eye-witness,  his  oppor 
tunity  was  one  to  be  coveted.  He  wrote  out 
so  full,  so  clear.,  and  so  interesting  an  account, 
that  the  proprietors  of  the  Journal  engaged 
him  as  their  regular  correspondent  at  a  salary 
of  twenty-five  dollars  a  week,  with  extra  allow 
ance  for  transportation.  His  instructions  were 
to  "  keep  the  Journal  at  the  front.  Use  all 
means  for  obtaining  and  transmitting  impor 
tant  information,  regardless  of  expense."  This, 
however,  was  not  to  be  interpreted  to  mean 


84  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

that  he  should  have  assistants  or  be  the  head 
of  a  bureau  or  relay  of  men,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  chief  correspondent  of  at  least  three  of  the 
New  York  newspapers.  It  meant  that  he  was 
to  gather  and  transmit  the  news  and  be  the 
whole  bureau  and  staff  in  himself.  Neverthe 
less,  during  most  of  the  war,  the  Boston  Jour 
nal  was  the  only  New  England  paper  that  kept 
a  regular  correspondent  permanently  not  only 
in  Washington,  but  at  the  seat  of  war.  Carle- 
ton  in  several  signal  instances  sent  news  of 
most  important  movements  and  victories  ahead 
of  any  other  Northern  correspondent.  He 
achieved  a  succession  of  what  newspaper  men 
call  "beats."  In  those  days,  on  account  of 
the  great  expense,  the  telegraph  was  used  only 
for  summaries  of  news,  and  rarely,  if  ever, 
for  long  despatches  or  letters.  The  ideas  and 
practice  of  newspaper  managers  have  greatly 
enlarged  since  1865.  Entering  upon  his  work 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  he  was,  we 
believe,  almost  the  only  field  correspondent 
who  continued  steadily  to  the  end,  coming  out 
of  it  with  unbroken  health  of  body  and  mind. 
How  he  managed  to  preserve  his  strength 
and  enthusiasm,  and  to  excel  where  so  many 


The  War  Correspondent  85 

others  did  well  and  nobly,  is  an  open  secret. 
In  the  first  place,  he  was  a  man  of  profound- 
est  religious  faith  in  the  Heavenly  Father. 
Prayer  was  his  refreshment.  He  renewed  his 
strength  by  waiting  upon  God.  His  spirit 
never  grew  weary.  In  the  darkest  days  he 
was  able  to  cheer  and  encourage  the  despond 
ing.  He  spoke  continually,  through  the  Jour 
nal^  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  readers,  in 
tones  of  cheer.  Like  a  great  lighthouse,  with 
its  mighty  lamps  ever  burning  and  its  reflectors 
and  lenses  kept  clean  and  clear,  Carleton,  never 
discouraged,  terrified,  or  tired  out,  sent  across 
the  troubled  sea  and  through  the  deepest  dark 
ness  the  inspiriting  flash  of  the  light  of  truth 
and  the  steady  beam  of  faith  in  the  Right  and 
its  ultimate  triumph.  He  was  a  missionary  of 
cheer  among  the  soldiers  in  camp  and  at  the 
front.  His  reports  of  battles,  and  his  message 
of  comfort  in  times  of  inaction,  wilted  the 
hopes  of  the  traitors,  copperheads,  cowards, 
and  "  nightshades "  at  home,  while  they  put 
new  blood  in  the  veins  of  the  hopeful. 

Carleton  was  always  welcome  among  the 
commanders  and  at  headquarters.  This  was 
because  of  his  frankness  as  well  as  his  ability 


86  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

and  his  genial  bonhomie  and  social  qualities. 
He  did  not  consider  himself  a  critic  of  gen 
erals.  He  simply  described.  He  took  care 
to  tell  what  he  saw,  or  knew  on  good  author 
ity  to  be  true.  He  did  probe  rumors.  From 
the  very  first  he  became  a  higher  critic  of  as 
sertions  and  even  of  documents.  He  quickly 
learned  the  value  of  camp  reports  and  items  of 
news.  By  and  by  his  skill  became  the  envy 
of  many  of  less  experienced  readers  of  human 
nature,  and  judges  of  talk  and  despatches. 
While  shirking  no  hard  work  in  the  saddle,  on 
foot,  on  the  rail,  or  in  the  boat,  he  found  by 
experience  that  by  keeping  near  headquarters 
he  was  the  better  enabled  to  know  the  motions 
of  the  army  as  a  whole,  to  divine  the  plans  of 
the  commanding  general,  and  thus  test  the 
value  of  flying  rumors.  He  had  a  genius  for 
interpreting  signs  of  movement,  whether  in 
the  loading  of  a  barge,  the  riding  of  an  orderly, 
or  the  nod  of  a  general's  head.  His  previous 
training  as  an  engineer  and  surveyor  enabled 
him  to  foresee  the  strategic  value  of  a  position 
and  to  know  the  general  course  of  a  campaign 
in  a  particular  district  of  country.  With  this 
power  of  practical  foresight,  he  was  often  better 


The  War  Correspondent  87 

able  even  than  some  of  the  generals  to  fore 
see  and  appraise  results.  This  topographical 
knowledge  also  gave  him  that  power  of  won 
derful  clearness  in  description  which  is  the  first 
and  best  quality  necessary  to  the  narrator  of  a 
series  of  complex  movements.  A  battle  fought 
in  the  open,  like  that  at  Gettysburg,  or  one  of 
those  which  took  place  during  the  previous 
campaigns,  on  a  plain,  along  the  river,  and  in 
the  Peninsula,  is  comparatively  easy  to  describe, 
especially  when  viewed  from  an  eminence. 
These  battles  were  like  those  in  ordinary 
European  history ;  but  after  Grant  took  com 
mand  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  a  reversion 
to  something  like  the  American  colonial  meth 
ods  in  the  forest  took  place.  The  heaviest 
fighting  was  in  the  woods,  behind  entrench 
ments,  or  in  regions  where  but  little  of  the 
general  scheme,  and  few  of  the  operations,  could 
be  seen  at  once.  In  either  case,  however,  as 
will  be  seen  by  reading  over  the  thousand  or 
so  letters  in  Carleton's  correspondence,  his 
power  of  making  a  modern  battle  easily  under 
stood  is,  if  not  unique,  at  least  very  remark 
able.  With  his  letters  often  went  diagrams 
which  greatly  aided  his  readers. 


Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Carleton's  personal  courage  was  always  equal 
to  that  of  the  bravest.  '  Too  sincerely  appre 
ciative  of  the  gift  of  life  from  his  Creator,  he 
never  needlessly,  especially  after  his  first  eager 
ness  for  experience  had  been  satiated,  exposed 
himself,  as  the  Dutch  used  to  say,  with  "  full- 
hardiness,"  or  as  we,  corrupting  the  word,  say, 
with  "  foolhardiness."  He  got  out  of  the  line 
of  shells  and  bullets  where  there  was  no  call  for 
his  presence,  and  when  the  only  justification 
for  remaining  would  be  to  gratify  idle  curiosity. 
Yet,  when  duty  called,  when  there  was  need  to 
know  both  the  facts,  and  the  truth  to  be  de 
duced  from  the  facts,  whistling  bullets  or 
screeching  shells  never  sufficed  to  drive  him 
away.  His  coolness  with  pen  and  pencil,  amid 
the  dropping  fire  of  the  enemy,  made  heroes 
of  many  a  soldier  whose  nerves  were  not  as 
strong  as  was  the  instinct  of  his  legs  to  run. 
The  lady  librarian  of  Dover,  N.  H.,  thus 
writes : 

"An  old  soldier  whom  I  was  once  showing 
through  the  library  stopped  short  in  front  of 
Coffin's  books  and  looked  at  them  with  much 
interest.  He  said  that  at  his  first  battle, —  I 
think  it  was  Fredericksburg,  but  of  this  I  am 


The  War  Correspondent  89 

not  sure,  —  he  was  scared  almost  to  death. 
He  was  a  mere  boy,  and  when  his  regiment  was 
ordered  to  the  front  and  the  shot  was  lively 
around  him,  he  would  have  run  away  if  he  had 
dared.  But  a  little  distance  off,  he  saw  a  man 
standing  under  the  lee  of  a  tree  and  writing 
away  as  coolly  as  if  he  were  standing  at  a  desk. 
The  soldier  asked  who  he  was,  and  was  told  it 
was  Carleton,  of  the  Journal.  c  There  he 
stood,'  said  the  man,  ( perfectly  unconcerned, 
and  I  felt  easier  every  time  I  looked  at  him. 
Finally  he  finished  and  went  off  to  another 
place.  But  that  was  his  reputation  among  the 
men  all  through  the  war,  —  perfectly  cool,  and 
always  at  the  front/ ' 

Carleton  was  able  to  withstand  four  years  of 
mental  strain  and  physical  exposure  because 
he  knew  and  put  in  practice  the  right  laws  of 
life.  His  temperance  in  eating  and  drinking 
was  habitual.  Often  dependent  with  the  pri 
vate  soldier,  while  on  the  march  and  in  camp, 
on  raw  pork  and  hardtack;  helped  out  in 
emergencies  with  food  and  victuals,  by  the 
quartermaster  or  his  assistants ;  not  infre 
quently  reaching  the  verge  of  starvation,  he 
did  not,  when  reaching  city  or  home,  play  the 


90  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

gourmand.  He  drank  no  intoxicating  liquor, 
always  politely  waving  aside  the  social  glass. 
He  was  true  to  his  principles  of  total  absti 
nence  which  had  been  formed  in  boyhood.  It 
would  have  been  easy  for  him  to  become  in 
temperate,  since  in  early  boyhood  he  acquired 
a  fondness  for  liquors,  through  being  allowed 
to  drink  what  might  remain  in  the  glass  after 
his  sick  mother  had  partaken  of  her  tonic. 
He  demonstrated  that  man  has  no  necessity 
for  alcoholic  drinks,  however  much  he  may 
enjoy  them. 

Only  on  one  occasion  was  he  known  to  taste 
strong  liquor.  In  the  Wilderness,  when  in  a 
company  of  officers  on  horseback,  the  blood 
curdling  Confederate  yells  were  heard  but  a 
short  distance  off,  and.  it  seemed  as  though  our 
line  had  been  broken  and  the  day  was  lost  for 
the  Union  army.  At  that  dark  moment,  one 
of  the  officers  on  General  Meade's  staff  pro 
duced  a  flask  of  brandy,  and  remarking  —  with 
inherited  English  prejudice  —  that  he  would 
fortify  his  nerves  with  "  Dutch  courage,"  to 
tide  over  the  emergency,  he  quaffed,  and  then 
handed  the  refreshment  to  his  companion.  In 
the  momentary  and  infectious  need  for  stimu- 


The  War  Correspondent  91 

lant  of  some  sort,  Mr.  Coffin  took  a  sip  and 
handed  it  on.  Though  himself  having  no 
need  of  and  very  rarely  making  use  of  spirits, 
even  medicinally,  he  was  yet  kindly  charitable 
towards  his  weaker  brethren.  It  is  too  sadly 
true  that  many  of  the  military  officers,  who 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  temporarily  brac 
ing  their  nerves  at  critical  moments,  became 
slaves  to  the  bottle,  and  afterwards  confirmed 
drunkards.  Carleton  made  no  use  of  tobacco 
in  any  form. 

Carleton's  wonderful  prescience  of  coming 
events,  and  his  decisions  rightly  made  as  to 
his  own  whereabouts  in  crises,  enabled  him 
to  concentrate  without  wasting  his  powers. 
He  then  gave  himself  to  his  work  with  all 
ardor,  and  without  sparing  brain  or  muscle, 
risking  limb  and  life  at  Bull  Run,  on  the 
Mississippi,  at  Fort  Donelson,  at  Antietam 
and  Gettysburg,  in  the  Wilderness,  at  Savan 
nah,  and  in  Richmond.  His  powers  in  toil 
were  prodigious.  He  could  turn  off  an  im-* 
mense  amount  of  work,  and  keep  it  up.  When 
the  lull  followed  the  agony,  he  went  home  to 
rest  and  recruit,  spending  the  time  with  his 
wife  and  friends,  everywhere  diffusing  the  sun- 


92  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

shine  of  hope  and  faith.  When  rested  and 
refreshed,  he  hied  again  to  the  front  and  the 
conflict.  The  careers  of  most  army  corre 
spondents  in  the  field  were  short.  Carleton's 
race  was  long.  His  was  the  promise  of  the 
prophet's  glorious  burden  in  Isaiah  xl.  28-31. 
It  was  between  his  thirty-eighth  and  forty- 
second  year,  when  in  the  high  tide  of  his  manly 
strength,  that  Carleton  pursued  the  profession 
of  letters  amid  the  din  of  arms.  His  pictures 
show  him  a  handsome  man,  with  broad,  open 
forehead  and  sunny  complexion,  standing  nearly 
six  feet  high,  his  feet  cased  in  the  broad  and 
comfortable  boots  which  he  always  wore.  Over 
his  ordinary  suit  of  clothing  was  a  long  and 
comfortable  overcoat  with  a  cape,  around  which 
was  a  belt,  to  which  hung  a  spy-glass.  Later 
in  the  war  he  bought  a  fine  binocular  marine 
glass.  He  gave  the  old  "historic  spy-glass" 
to  his  nephew  Edmund,  from  under  whose 
head  it  was  stolen  by  some  camp  thief.  In 
his  numerous  and  capacious  pockets,  besides  a 
watch  and  a  pocket  compass,  was  a  store  of 
note-books,  in  which  he  was  accustomed  to  jot 
his  rapid,  lightning-like  notes,  which  meant 
"  reading  without  tears  "  for  him,  but  woe  and 


The  War  Correspondent  93 

sorrow  to  those  who  had  to  knit  their  brows  in 
trying  to  decipher  his  "  crow-tracks."  During 
the  first  part  of  the  war  he  bought  horses  as 
often  as  he  needed  them,  and  these  were  not 
always  of  the  first  quality  as  to  flesh  or  charac 
ter.  He  usually  found  it  difficult  to  recover 
his  beast  after  having  been  away  home.  In  the 
later  campaigns  he  possessed  finer  animals  for 
longer  spaces  of  time,  taking  more  pains,  and 
spending  more  money  to  recover  them  on  his 
return  from  absences  North. 

Nevertheless,  in  order  to  beat  other  corre 
spondents,  to  be  at  the  front,  in  the  right  mo 
ment,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  need  for  news,  he 
counted  neither  the  life  nor  the  ownership  of 
his  horse  as  worth  a  moment's  consideration. 
In  comparison  with  the  idea  of  stilling  the  pub 
lic  anxiety,  and  giving  the  news  of  victory,  he 
acted  upon  the  principle  of  his  Master,  —  "Ye 
are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows."  One 
man,  using  plain  English,  says,  "  Uncle  Carle- 
ton  got  the  news,  goodness  knows  how,  but  he 
got  it  always  and  truly.  He  was  the  cheekiest 
man  on  earth  for  the  sake  of  the  Journal^  and 
the  people  of  New  England.  He  used  to  ask 
for  and  give  news  even  to  the  commander-in- 


94  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

chief.  Often  the  staff  officers  would  be  amazed 
at  the  cheek  of  Carleton  in  suggesting  what 
should  be  done.  His  bump  of  locality  and 
topography  was  well  developed,  and  he  read 
the  face  of  the  country  as  by  intuition.  He 
would  talk  to  the  commander  as  no  civilian 
could  or  would,  but  Meade  usually  took  it 
pleasantly,  and  Grant  always  welcomed  it,  and 
seemed  glad  to  get  it.  I  have  seen  him  (Grant) 
in  long  conversations  with  Mr.  Coffin,  when 
no  others  were  near." 


CHAPTER    VIII 

WITH    THE    ARMY    OF    THE     POTOMAC 

CARLETON'S  account  of  the  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  where  the  Union  forces  first 
won  the  day,  and  then  lost  it  through  a  panic, 
was  so  graphic,  accurate,  and  comprehensive, 
that  the  readers  of  the  Boston  Journal  at  once 
poured  in  their  requests  that  the  same  writer 
should  continue  his  work  and  reports. 

From  his  position  with  the  Union  batteries 
he  had  a  fine  view  of  the  whole  engagement. 
Many  of  the  statements  which  he  made  were, 
as  to  their  accuracy,  perfect.  For  example, 
when  the  Confederates  fired  continuous  vol 
leys,  making  one  long  roll  of  musketry,  min 
gled  with  screams,  yells,  and  cheers,  while  their 
batteries  sent  a  rain  of  shell  and  round  shot, 
grape  and  canister,  upon  a  body  of  three  com 
panies  of  Massachusetts  men,  Carleton  stood 
with  his  watch  in  his  hand  to  see  how  long 
these  raw  troops  could  stand  such  a  fire.  It 

95 


96  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

is  wonderful  to  read  to-day  his  volume  .of 
"Army  Correspondence,"  and  find  so  little 
to  correct. 

Besides  letters  written  on  the  field  during 
the  first  of  four  battles,  he  wrote  from  Wash 
ington  in  review  of  the  whole  movement.  He 
was  not  at  all  discouraged  by  what  had  hap 
pened,  believing  that  the  bitter  experience, 
though  valuable,  was  worth  its  cost.  He  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  among  the  number  of 
those  who  expected  that  the  great  insurrection 
would  be  put  down  in  a  few  months.  Like 
every  one  else,  he  was  at  first  smitten  with 
that  glamour  which  the  Western  soldiers,  led 
by  Grant,  soon  learned  to  call  "  McClellan- 
ism."  It  was  with  genuine  admiration  that  he 
noticed  the  untiring  industry  and  superb  or 
ganizing  powers  of  "  Little  Mac  ;  "  who,  what 
ever  his  later  faults  may  have  been,  was  the 
man  who  transformed  a  mob  of  militia  into 
that  splendid  machine  animated  by  an  unquail- 
ing  soul,  "  The  Army  of  the  Potomac."  Yet 
in  the  cool  light  of  history,  wre  must  rate 
Gen.  George  B.  McClellan  as  the  military 
Erasmus  of  this  war  of  national  reformation, 
while  Grant  was  its  Luther. 


With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac        97 

Late  in  August,  after  ten  days'  rest  at  home 
to  recruit  exhausted  energies,  Carleton  was 
once  more  at  his  post  in  the  "  City  of  Mag 
nificent  Distances  —  and  big  lies,"  attempting 
to  draw  out  the  truth  from  whole  maelstroms 
of  falsehood.  He  writes  :  "  Truly  this  is  a  city 
given  to  lying."  He  had  a  habit  of  hunting 
down  falsehoods,  of  tracing  rumors  to  their 
holes.  Many  an  hour  in  the  blazing  sun, 
consuming  his  strength,  did  this  hater  of  lies 
spend  in  chasing  empty  breaths.  Once  he 
rode  forty  miles  on  horseback,  simply  to  con 
firm  or  reject  an  assertion.  Very  early,  how 
ever,  he  learned  to  put  every  report  upon  the 
touchstone,  and  under  the  nitric  acid  of  criti 
cism.  He  quickly  gained  experience,  and 
saved  .much  vexation  to  himself  and  his 
readers.  In  this  way  his  letters  became  what 
they  are,  like  coins  put  in  the  pyx,  and  mint 
age  that  survives  the  best  of  the  goldsmiths. 
When  read  thirty-five  years  after  the  first  drying 
of  the  ink,  we  have  a  standard  of  truth,  need 
ing  correction,  for  the  most  part,  only  here 
and  there,  in  such  details  as  men  clearly  discern 
only  in  the  perspective  of  time. 

Under  McClellan's  strict  orders,  Washing- 


98  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ton  became  less  of  a  national  bar-room.  The 
camps  were  made  models  of  cleanliness,  hygiene, 
and  comfort,  and  schools  of  strict  preparation 
for  the  stern  work  ahead.  Carleton  often 
rode  through  them,  and  out  on  the  picket-line. 
Among  his  other  studies,  being  a  musician, 
he  soon  learned  the  various  notes  and  tones 
of  round  and  conical  bullet,  of  globular  and 
case  shot,  of  shell  and  rocket,  as  an  Indian 
learns  the  various  sounds  and  calls  of  birds 
and  beasts.  Never  wearing  eye-glasses,  until 
very  late  in  life,  and  then  only  for  reading,  he 
was  able,  when  standing  behind  or  directly 
before  a  cannon,  to  see  the  missile  moving 
as  a  black  spot  on  the  invisible  air,  and  from 
a  side  view  to  perceive  the  short  plug  of  con 
densed  air  in  front  of  a  ball,  which  is  now 
clearly  revealed  by  instantaneous  photography. 
He  soon  noted  how  the  variation  in  the  charge 
of  powder,  and  the  curve  of  the  rifle,  changed 
the  pitch  of  the  ball,  and  how  and  why  certain 
shells  with  ragged  edges  of  lead  scream  like 
demons,  and  work  upon  the  nerves  by  their 
sound  and  fury  rather  than  their  total  of  re 
sults.  He  soon  discovered  that  in  a  battle 
the  artillery,  except  at  short  ranges,  and  in 


With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac        99 

the  open,  bears  no  comparison  in  its  killing 
power  to  the  rifles  of  the  infantry.  Like  an 
old  soldier,  he  soon  came  to  look  with  some 
thing  like  contempt  upon  the  ponderous  can 
non  and  mortars,  and  to  admire  the  low  firing 
of  the  old  veteran  musket-men. 

During  those  humiliating  days,  when  the 
stars  and  bars  waved  upon  Munson's  Hill 
within  sight  of  the  Capitol,  Carleton  saw  much 
of  the  Confederates  through  his  glass.  Picket- 
firing,  though  irregular  and,  probably,  from  a 
European  point  of  view,  unmilitary,  trained 
the  troops  to  steadiness  of  nerve.  Many 
things  in  the  first  part  of  the  war  were  done 
which  were  probably  not  afterwards  often  re 
peated  ;  for  example,  the  meeting  of  officers  on 
the  picket-lines,  who  had  communications 
with  each  other,  because  they  were  free 
masons.  In  September,  the  Confederates  fell 
back  from  Munson's  Hill,  and  on  October  2ist 
the  battle  at  Poolsville,  or  Ball's  BlufF,  took 
place,  in  which,  out  of  1,800  Federals  engaged, 
over  one-third  were  killed,  wounded  or  miss 
ing.  The  Fifteenth  Massachusetts  regiment 
suffered  heavily.  Colonel  Devens,  afterwards 
major-general  and  attorney-general,  covered 


ioo  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

himself  with    glory,    but    the    brave    Colonel 
Baker  lost  his  life. 

Edward  Dickinson  Baker,  born  in  England, 
had  come  to  the  United  States  in  his  youth. 
Between  his  thirtieth  and  fortieth  year  he 
had  served  in  Congress  as  representative  from 
Illinois.  Then  removing  to  California,  he  be 
came  a  popular  orator  of  the  Republican  party. 
In  1860  he  was  elected  United  States  Senator 
from  Oregon.  I  remember  reading  with  a 
thrill  his  speech  in  the  Senate,  and  his  rebuke 
of  Breckin ridge.  A  few  days  later  he  was  in 
Philadelphia  holding  a  commission  as  colonel. 
He  visited  in  their  different  halls  the  volunteer 
fire  companies  of  our  Quaker  City.  In  torrents 
of  overwhelming  eloquence,  he  called  on  them 
to  enlist  in  his  famous  "California  Regiment," 
which  was  quickly  clothed,  equipped,  and  given 
the  first  rudiments  of  military  instruction.  I 
remember  his  superb,  manly  figure,  in  the  very 
prime  of  life,  his  rosy  English  face  set  in  a 
glory  of  hair  just  turning  to  silver.  With  hat 
off,  he  rode  up  and  down  the  line,  as  the  regi 
ment  stood  in  "company  front"  on  Federal 
Street,  between  the  old  Cooper  Shop  (which 
was  destined  later  to  be  the  great  Volunteers' 


With  the  Army  of  the   Potomac      101 

Refreshment  Saloon)  and  the  Baltimore  Depot, 
where  they  were  to  take  cars  for  the  seat  of 
war.  Like  the  "ten  thousand"  with  Klearchos, 
foreigner,  hut  also  friend  and  commander,  of 
whom  Xenophon  in  the  "  Anabasis  "  speaks,  it 
was  already  uncertain  whether  the  Philadelphia 
men  most  feared  or  loved  their  lion-hearted 
leader.  A  few  weeks  went  by,  the  tragedy  of 
Ball's  Bluff  took  place,  and  in  Independence 
Hall  I  saw  the  brave  Colonel  Baker's  body 
lying  in  state.  In  that  hall  of  heroes,  it  seemed 
to  my  imagination  as  though  the  painted  eyes 
of  the  Revolutionary  heroes  looked  down  in 
sympathy  and  approval.  There,  if  not  already 
among  them,  soon  hung  also  the  picture  of 
Lieutenant  Henry  Greble,  friend  and  neighbor, 
killed  at  Big  Bethel,  and  the  first  officer  in  the 
regular  army  slain  during  the  war.  Colonel, 
afterwards  General,  Charles  Devens,  Jr.,  whose 
acquaintance  Mr.  Coffin  made  about  this  time, 
distinguished  himself  from  this  early  engage 
ment  at  Ball's  Bluff  throughout  the  war,  and 
until  the  closing  scene  at  Appomattox  Court 
House,  rising  to  the  rank  of  brevet  major- 
general.  Long  afterwards,  in  Boston,  having 
been  attorney-general  of  the  United  States,  I 


IO2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

knew  him  as  the  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  meeting  him  socially  more 
than  once,  and  noticing  the  warm  friendship 
between  the  famous  war  correspondent  and 
this  dignified  interpreter  of  law. 

After  the  battle  of  Ball's  Bluff,  seeing  in 
detail  the  other  and  the  hideous  side  of  war 
in  the  mutilation  of  the  human  frame,  and  the 
awful  horror  of  wounds,  Carleton  took  a  long 
ride  through  Eastern  Maryland  to  look  at  the 
rebel  batteries  along  the  lower  Potomac  and  to 
study  the  roads,  the  food  products,  and  the 
black  and  white  humanity  of  the  Chesapeake 
Bay  and  Potomac  regions,  besides  informing 
himself  as  to  the  Union  flotilla.  In  the 
absence  of  active  military  operations,  he  wrote 
of  the  religious  life  of  the  soldiers.  He  was 
appalled  at  the  awful  profanity  around  him, 
and  his  constant  prayer  to  God  was  for  strength 
to  resist  the  demoralizing  influences  around 
him,  which  seemed  to  him  a  hell  on  earth. 
His  wife's  words  followed  him  "like  a  strain 
of  music,"  and  "the  infinite  purity  of  Jesus" 
was  his  inspiring  influence. 

He  made  himself  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  New  England  regiments,  and  studied 


With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac      103 

the  details  in  the  "mosaic  of  the  army."  He 
became  so  expert  in  studying  the  general  com 
position  of  the  regiments,  their  physical  appear 
ance,  and  ways  of  life,  peculiarities  of  thought, 
speech,  and  action,  that  usually  within  five 
minutes  he  could  tell  from  what  State,  and 
usually  from  what  locality  a  regiment  had 
come.  He  writes: 

"A  regiment  from  Vermont  is  as  unlike  a 
regiment  from  Pennsylvania  almost  as  a  pea 
from  a  pumpkin.  Both  are  excellent.  Both 
are  brave.  Both  will  fight  well;  but  in  the 
habits  of  life,  in  modes  of  doing  a  thing,  they 
are  widely  different." 

"Just  look  at  the  division  that  crosses  the 
Potomac,  and  see  the  mosaic  of  McClellan's 
army.  Commencing  on  the  right  there  is 
McCall's  division,  one  grand  lump  of  Pennsyl 
vania  coal  and  iron.  There  is  Smith's  division, 
containing  a  block  of  Vermont  marble ;  then 
Porter's  tough  conglomerate  of  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  Michigan,  Massachusetts,  Maine, 
and  Rhode  Island;  then  McDowell's,  a  splendid 
specimen  of  New  York;  then  Blenker's,  a  mag 
nificent  contribution  from  Germany,  with  such 
names  as  Stahl,  Wurnhe,  Amsburg,  Bush- 


104  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

beck,  Bahler,  Steinwick,  Saest,  Betje,  Cultes 
D'Utassy,  Von  Gilsa,  and  Schimmelpfennig, 
who  talk  the  language  of  their  Fatherland,  sing 
the  Rhine  songs,  and  drink  a  deluge  of  lager 
beer,  —  slow,  sure,  reliable  men,  of  the  stock 
that  stood  undismayed  when  all  things  were 
against  them,  in  the  times  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  who  lost  everything  except  courage,  and, 
that  being  invincible,  regained  all  they  had  lost. 
Then  there  are  the  Irish  brigades  and  regiments 
from  a  stock  which  needs  no  words  of  praise, 
for  their  deeds  are  written  in  history.  Without 
enumerating  all  the  divisions,  we  see  Yankees, 
Germans,  Irish,  Scotch,  Italians,  Frenchmen, 
Norwegians,  and  Dutchmen,  —  all  in  one  army; 
and,  grandest  spectacle  of  all,  moved  by  one 
common  impulse  to  put  down  this  rebellion, 
and  to  save  for  all  future  time  the  principle 
upon  which  this  government  is  founded." 

Weeks  and  months  passed,  and  Carleton  be 
came  acquainted  with  all  the  minutiae  of  camp 
life.  He  studied  the  peculiarities  of  the  sut 
ler,  the  army  mule,  the  government  rations, 
and  the  pies  concocted  in  New  York.  He  en 
joyed  the  grand  reviews,  noting  with  his  quick 
eye  the  difference,  in  the  great  host,  between 


With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac      105 

the  volunteers  and  the  regulars.  Of  the  type 
of  that  noble  band  of  officers  and  men,  none 
the  less  patriotic  because  more  thoroughly  edu 
cated  in  drills  than  the  volunteers,  he  wrote : 
"His  steps  are  regulated,  —  his  motions,  his 
manners,  —  he  is  a  regular  in  all  these.  The 
volunteer  stoops  beneath  the  load  on  his  back. 
He  is  far  more  like  Bunyan's  c  Pilgrim's  Prog 
ress,'  with  his  burden  of  sin,  than  the  regu 
lar.  His  steps  are  uneven,  his  legs  are  more 
unsteady.  He  carries  his  gun  at  a  different 
angle.  He  lacks  the  finish  which  is  obtained 
only  by  hard  drill,  and  exact  discipline."  He 
closed  this  letter  with  a  tribute  of  praise  to 
Tidball's  superb  battery  of  artillery. 

At  this  time  the  cavalry  were  not  in  good 
repute,  General  Scott  not  being  in  favor  of  any 
horsemen,  except  for  scouting  purposes.  In 
this  arm  of  the  service  the  Confederates  were 
far  ahead  of  the  Union  soldiers.  Grant,  Sheri 
dan,  and  Ronald  McKenzie  had  not  yet  trans 
formed  our  Northern  horsemen  into  whirlwinds 
of  fire.  After  various  other  experiences,  includ 
ing  a  long  ride  through  Western  Maryland, 
Carleton,  within  a  few  days  before  Christmas, 
was  called  by  his  employers  to  leave  the  Army 


io6  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

of  the  Potomac,  to  go  west  to  the  prospective 
battle-field,  where  the  heavy  blows  were  soon 
to  be  struck.  He  was  succeeded  in  Wash 
ington  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Perley  Poore.  A 
few  noble  words  of  farewell  in  his  iO9th  let 
ter,  dated  Washington,  December  21,  1861, 
closed  Carleton's  first  campaign  in  the  East, 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac  having  begun  on  the  1 2th  of  June. 
Having  won  the  hearts  of  the  soldiers  in 
camp,  and  their  friends  at  home,  he  left  for 
"  the  next  great  battle-field "  in  the  West, 
where,  as  he  said,  "  history  will  soon  be  writ 
ten  in  blood."  He  would  see  how  the  navy, 
as  well  as  the  army,  was  to  bring  peace  by  its 
men  of  valor,  and  its  heavy  guns, —  "preachers 
against  treason."  His  experience  was  to  be  of 
war  on  the  waters,  as  well  as  on  land. 


CHAPTER    IX 

HO,     FOR    THE    GUNBOATS,    HO  ! 


HIS  first  letter  from  the  Army  of  the  West, 
he  dated,  Cincinnati,  December  28,  1861. 
Instead  of  a  comparatively  circumscribed  Utica 
(on  the  Potomac),  to  confine  his  powers,  our 
modern  Ulysses  had  a  line  a  thousand  miles 
long,  and  a  territory  larger  than  several  New 
Englands  to  look  over.  His  first  work,  there 
fore,  was  to  invite  his  readers  to  a  panorama  of 
Kentucky  and  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Thus 
far  in  the  war  there  had  been  no  masterly 
moves,  but,  on  the  contrary,  masterly  inac 
tivity.  With  such  splendid  chances  for  heroes, 
who  would  improve  them  ?  Neither  Wolfe 
nor  Washington  had  played  Micawber,  but 
had  created  opportunities.  Carleton  wrote, 
"  Now  is  the  time  for  the  highest  order  of 
military  genius.  .  .  .  We  wait  for  him  who 

shall   improve   the  propitious   hours."     So   in 

107 


io8  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

waiting  went  out  the  gloomy  year  of  1861. 
At  Louisville,  Ky.,  Carleton  made  the  ac 
quaintance  in  detail  of  General  Buell's  army. 
The  commander,  Don  Carlos  Buell,  did  not 
enjoy  the  presence  of  correspondents,  and  those 
from  Cincinnati  and  New  York  papers  had 
been  expelled  from  the  camp  ;  nor  was  Carle- 
ton's  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  asking 
that  "facilities  consistent  with  public  interests" 
be  granted  him,  of  any  avail.  He  wrote  on 
New  Year's  day,  "  No  more  troops  are  needed 
here,  or  on  the  Potomac  at  present ;  what  is 
wanted  is  activity,  —  activity, —  activity." 

Following  Horace  Greeley's  advice,  Carle- 
ton  went  West.  On  January  4th,  having  sur 
veyed  the  land  and  people,  he  sent  home  two 
letters,  then  moved  on  to  Rolla,  in  the  heart 
of  Missouri,  and,  having  got  out  of  St.  Louis 
with  his  passes,  he  found  himself,  January  i  ith, 
at  Cairo.  There  the  New  England  men  were 
warm  in  their  welcome  of  the  sole  representa 
tive  of  the  press  of  the  Eastern  States,  though 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  New  York 
journals  were  also  represented.  Among  these 
were  A.  D.  Richardson,  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  and  Whitelaw  Reid,  of  the  Cincin- 


"Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho!"       109 

nati  Gazette.  Unlike  General  Don  Carlos  Buell, 
General  U.  S.  Grant,  in  command  at  Cairo, 
had  no  horror  of  newspaper  correspondents, 
and  granted  them  all  reasonable  facilities.  For 
the  first  time  Carleton  looked  upon  the  gun 
boats,  "three  being  of  the  coal-transport  pat 
tern,  and  five  of  the  turtle  style,"  with  sides 
sloping  inward,  both  above  and  below  the  deck. 
A  shot  from  the  enemy  would  be  likely  either 
to  fly  up  in  the  air  or  "  go  into  the  realms 
of  the  catfish."  As  to  the  army,  Carleton 
noticed  that,  as  compared  with  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  discipline  was  much  more  severe 
in  the  East,  while  real  democracy  was  much 
more  general  in  the  West.  Men  seemed  less 
proud  of  their  shoulder-straps.  The  rules  of 
military  etiquette  were  barely  observed. 

"  There  is  but  very  little  of  the  soldier  about 
these  Western  troops.  They  are  armed  citi 
zens,  brave,  active,  energetic,  with  a  fine  phy 
sique,  acquainted  with  hardships,  reared  to 
rough  life  .  .  .  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  they  will  not  be  quite  as  effective  in  the 
field.  The  troops  here  are  a  splendid  set  of 
men,  all  of  them  young.  .  .  .  There  is  more 
bone  and  muscle  here,  but  less  culture.  ...  I 


iio  *  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

have  heard  far  less  profanity  here  than  on  the 
Potomac,  among  officers  and  men."  He  be 
lieved  there  were  fewer  profane  words  used 
and  less  whiskey  drunk  than  among  the  troops 
in  the  East.  There  was  not  as  much  attention 
paid  to  neatness  and  camp  hygiene. 

It  was  at  Cairo  that  Carleton  made  the 
personal  acquaintance,  which  he  retained  until 
their  death,  of  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and 
Commodore  Foote.  The  latter  had  already 
made  a  superb  reputation  as  a  naval  officer  in 
Africa  and  China.  Before  Foote  was  able  to 
equip  and  start  his  fleet,  or  Grant  could  move 
his  army  southward,  on  what  proved  to  be 
their  resistless  march,  Carleton  made  journeys 
into  Kentucky,  wrote  letters  from  Cincinnati 
and  Chicago,  and  arrived  back  in  time  to  join 
General  Grant's  column.  He  went  down  the 
river,  seeing  the  victorious  battle  and  siege 
operations.  First  from  Cairo,  and  then  from 
Fort  Donelson,  he  penned  brilliant  and  accu 
rate  accounts  of  the  capture  of  Fort  Henry 
and  Fort  Donelson,  which  opened  the  South 
ern  Confederacy  to  the  advance  of  the  Union 
army.  While  Grant  beat  the  rebels,  Carleton 
beat  his  fellow  correspondents,  even  though  he 


"  Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho  !  "       1 1 1 

had  first  to  spend  many  hours  among  the 
wounded.  The  newspaper  men  from  New 
York  had  poked  not  a  little  fun  at  the  "  Bos 
ton  man,"  chaffing  him  because  they  thought 
the  New  England  newspapers  "  slow "  and 
"  out  of  date  in  methods."  They  fully  ex 
pected  that  Carleton's  despatches  would  be  far 
behind  theirs  in  point  of  time  as  well  as  in 
general  value.  Their  boasting  was  sadly  pre 
mature.  Carleton  beat  them  all,  and  their 
humiliation  was  great. 

The  matter  was  in  this  wise.  He  had 
hoped  by  taking  the  first  boat  from  Fort 
Donelson  to  Cairo  to  find  time  to  write  out 
an  account  of  the  siege  and  surrender  of  the 
great  fortresses ;  but  during  his  travel  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  on  the  river,  the 
steamer  had  in  its  cabin  and  staterooms  two 
hundred  maimed  soldiers  and  officers  with 
their  wounds  undressed.  Instead  of  occupa 
tion  with  ink-bottle,  pen,  and  paper,  Carleton 
found  himself  giving  water  to  the  wounded, 
and  holding  the  light  for  surgeons  and  nurses. 
Then,  knowing  that  no  other  correspondent 
had  the  exact  and  copious  information  pos 
sessed  by  himself,  he  took  the  cars,  writing  his 


i  i  2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

letters   on   the    route   from    Cairo    to    Chicago, 
where  he  mailed  them. 

No  doubt  at  this  time,  while  Carleton  was 
writing  so  brilliantly  to  a  quarter  of  a  million 
readers,  many  of  them  envied  him  his  oppor 
tunities.  Distance  lent  enchantment  to  the 
view.  "  But  let  me  say,"  wrote  Carleton,  "  if 
they  were  once  brought  into  close  contact  with 
all  the  dreadful  realities  of  war,  —  if  they  were 
obliged  to  stand  the  chances  of  getting  their 
heads  knocked  off,  or  blown  to  atoms  by  an 
unexpected  shell,  or  bored  through  with  a 
minie  ball,  —  to  stand  their  chances  of  being 
captured  by  the  enemy,  —  to  live  on  bread  and 
water,  and  little  of  it,  as  all  of  the  correspond 
ents  have  been  obliged  to  do  the  past  week, — 
to  sleep  on  the  ground,  or  on  a  sack  of  corn, 
or  in  a  barn,  with  the  wind  blowing  a  gale, 
and  the  snow  whirling  in  drifts,  and  the  ther 
mometer  shrunk  to  zero,  —  and  then,  after  the 
battle  is  over  and  the  field  won,  to  walk 
among  the  dying  and  the  dead,  to  behold  all 
the  ghastly  sights  of  trunkless  heads  and  head 
less  trunks,  —  to  see  the  human  form  muti 
lated,  disfigured,  torn,  and  mangled  by  shot 
and  shell,  —  to  step  in  pools  of  blood, —  to 


"Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho!"       113 

hear  all  around  sighs,  groans,  imprecations,  and 
prayers  from  dying  men,  —  they  would  be  con 
tent  to  let  others  become  historians  of  the  war. 
But  this  is  not  all ;  a  correspondent  must  keep 
ever  in  view  the  thousands  that  are  looking 
at  the  journal  he  represents,  who  expect  his 
account  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  If 
he  is  behindhand,  his  occupation  is  gone. 
His  account  must  be  first,  or  among  the  first, 
or  it  is  nothing.  Day  and  night  he  must  be 
on  the  alert,  improving  every  opportunity  and 
turning  it  to  account.  If  he  loses  a  steam 
boat  trip,  or  a  train  of  cars,  or  a  mail,  it  is  all 
up  with  him.  He  might  as  well  put  his  pencil 
in  his  pocket  and  go  home." 

Carleton  had  a  hearty  laugh  over  a  letter 
from  a  friend  who  advised  him  "  to  take  more 
time  and  rewrite  his  letters,"  adding  that  it 
would  be  for  his  benefit.  To  Carleton,  who 
often  wrote  amid  the  smoke  of  battle  or  on 
deck  amid  bursting  shells,  or  while  flying  over 
the  prairies  at  the  rate  of  thirty-five  miles  an 
hour,  in  order,  first  of  all,  to  be  ahead  of  his 
rivals,  this  seemed  a  joke.  In  after-years  of 
calm  and  leisure,  when  writing  his  books,  he 
painted  word  pictures  and  finished  his  chapters> 


ii4  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

giving  them  a  rhetorical  gloss  impossible  when 
writing  in  haste  against  the  pressure  of  rush 
ing  time.  Although  Boston  was  two  hundred 
miles  farther  from  Cairo  than  New  York,  yet 
all  New  England  had  read  Carleton's  account 
in  the  Journal  before  any  correspondent's  let 
ters  from  Fort  Donelson  or  Henry  appeared 
in  the  newspapers  of  Manhattan. 

After  the  fall  of  Columbus,  the  next  point 
to  which  army  and  navy  were  to  give  attention 
was  the  famous  Island  Number  Ten.  Here 
the  Confederates  were  concentrating  all  that 
were  available  in  men  and  cannon.  Thousands 
of  negroes  were  at  work  upon  the  trenches,  and 
it  was  believed  that  the  fight  would  be  most 
desperate.  After  long  waiting  for  his  arma 
ment  and  the  training  of  his  men,  Commodore 
Foote  was  ready.  Carleton  wrote  at  Cairo, 
March  10,  1862,  in  the  exhilaration  of  high 
hopes  : 

"  Like  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic  is  the  tide 
of  events.  How  they  sweep  !  Henry,  Don 
elson,  Bowling  Green,  Nashville,  Roanoke, 
Columbus,  Hampton  Roads,  Manassas,  Cedar 
Creek,  —  wave  upon  wave,  dashing  at  the 
foundation  of  a  house  built  upon  the  sand. 


"Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho!"       115 

.  .  .  The  gigantic  structure  is  tottering.  A 
few  more  days  like  that  of  the  immediate  past, 
and  the  Confederacy  will  have  a  name  and  a 
place  only  in  history.  And  what  a  history  it 
will  be  !  A  most  stupendous  crime.  A  con 
spiracy  unparalleled,  crushed  out  by  a  free 
people,  and  the  best  government  of  all  times 
saved  to  the  world  !  How  it  sends  one's  blood 
through  his  veins  to  think  of  it !  Who  would 
not  live  in  such  an  age  as  this  ?  Before  this 
reaches  you,  the  telegraph,  I  hope,  will  have 
informed  you  that  the  Mississippi  is  open  to 
New  Orleans." 

So  thought  Carleton  then.  Who  at  that 
time  was  wiser  than  he  ? 

Island  Number  Ten,  so  named  quite  early 
in  history,  by  the  pilots  descending  the  river, 
was  a  place  but  little  known  in  the  East.  To 
the  writer  it  was  one  of  interest,  because  here 
had  lived  for  a  year  or  so  a  beloved  sister 
whose  letters  from  the  plantation  and  home  at 
which  she  was  a  guest  were  not  only  frequent, 
but  full  of  the  fun  and  keen  interest  about 
things  as  seen  on  a  slave  plantation  by  a  bright 
young  girl  of  twenty  from  Philadelphia.  Well 
do  I  remember  the  handsome  planter  of  com- 


116  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

manding  form  and  winning  manners  who  had 
made  my  sister's  stay  in  the  family  of  the 
Merri wethers  so  pleasant,  and  who  at  our 
home  in  Philadelphia  told  of  his  life  on  the 
Mississippi.  This  was  but  two  or  three  years 
before  the  breaking  out  of  the  war.  This 
same  plantation  on  Island  Number  Ten  was 
afterwards  sown  thickly  with  the  seed  of  war, 
shot,  and  shell.  In  front  of  it  took  place  the 
great  naval  battle,  which  Carleton  witnessed 
from  the  deck  of  the  gunboat  Pittsburg,  which 
he  has  described  not  only  in  his  letters  but  also 
in  the  books  written  later.  After  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  rebel  fleet  followed  the  heavy  bom 
bardment  which,  after  many  days  of  constant 
rain  of  iron,  compelled  the  evacuation  of  the 
forts  early  in  April.  Even  after  these  stagger 
ing  blows  at  the  Confederacy,  Carleton  expa 
tiated  on  the  mighty  work  that  yet  remained 
to  be  done  before  Secessia  should  become  one 
of  the  curiosities  of  history  in  the  limbo  of 
things  exploded. 

A  month  of  arduous  toil  and  continuous 
activity  on  foot,  on  deck,  and  on  horseback 
followed.  On  the  river  and  in  Tennessee  and 
in  Mississippi  the  tireless  news-gatherer  plied 


"  Ho,  for  the  Gunboats,  Ho!"       117 

his  tasks.  Then  came  tidings  of  the  capture 
of  New  Orleans,  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Pillow, 
in  or  near  which  Carleton  wrote  two  of  his  best 
letters ;  the  retreat  of  the  Confederates  from 
Memphis,  and  the  annihilation  of  the  rebel 
fleet  in  a  great  water  battle,  during  which 
Carleton  had  the  very  best  position  for  obser 
vation,  only  two  other  journalists  being  present 
to  witness  it  with  him.  Owing  to  a  week's 
sickness,  he  did  not  see  the  battle  of  Shiloh 
or  Pittsburg  Landing,  but  he  arrived  on  the 
ground  very  soon  after,  and  went  over  the 
whole  field  with  participants  in  the  struggle 
and  while  the  debris  was  still  fresh.  He  made 
so  thorough  a  study  of  this  decisive  field  of 
valor,  that  he  was  able  to  write  with  notable 
power  and  clearness  both  in  his  letters  at  the 
time  and  later  in  his  books. 

We  find  him  in  Chicago,  June  lyth,  in  Bos 
ton,  June  2  ist,  where,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
numbering  probably  about  the  two  hundredth, 
he  welcomes  the  sweet  breezes  of  New  England, 
her  mountains,  the  deep-toned  diapason  of  the 
ever-sounding  sea,  the  green  fields,  the  troops 
of  smiling  children,  the  toll  of  church  bells, 
and  the  warm  grasp  of  hands  from  a  host  of 


ii8  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

kind-hearted  friends ;  and,  best  of  all,  the 
pure  patriotism,  the  true,  holy  devotion  of 
a  people  whose  mighty  hearts  beat  now  and 
ever  "  for  union  and  liberty,  one  and  insep 
arable." 


CHAPTER    X 

AT    ANTIETAM    AND    FREDERICKSBURG 

THE  opening  of  the  battle-summer  of 
1862  found  the  seat  of  war  in  the  East, 
in  the  tidewater  region  of  Virginia.  These 
were  the  days  when  "strategy"  was  the  word. 
General  George  B.  McClellan's  leading  idea 
was  to  capture  Richmond  rather  than  destroy 
the  Confederate  army.  His  own  forces  lay  on 
both  sides  of  the  Chickahominy,  in  the  penin 
sula  below  Richmond.  The  series  of  five 
battles  had  already  begun  when  Carleton  ar 
rived  in  Baltimore,  July  id.  A  peremptory 
order  from  Washington  having  stopped  every 
one  from  reaching  Fortress  Monroe,  he  had 
therefore  to  do  the  next  best  thing  as  collector 
and  reviser  of  news.  After  studying  the  whole 
situation,  he  wrote  a  long  and  detailed  letter 
from  Baltimore. 

Spending    most    of  the    summer   at    home, 

he  was  able  to  rejoin  the  army  early  in  Sep- 

119 


I2O  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

tember,  when  Lee  began  his  daring  invasion 
of  the  North,  —  a  political  even  more  than  a 
military  move.  Then  Confederate  audacity 
was  fully  matched  by  Pennsylvania's  patriot 
ism.  Although  the  State  had  already  one 
hundred  and  fifty  regiments  in  service,  Gover 
nor  Andrew  D.  Curtin  called  for  fifty  thousand 
more  men.  Within  ten  days  that  number  of 
militia  were  armed  and  equipped,  and  in  the 
field.  Millionaires  and  wage-earners,  profes 
sors  and  students,  ministers  and  their  congre 
gations  were  in  line  guarding  the  Cumberland 
Valley.  Neither  disasters  nor  the  incapacity 
of  generals  chilled  the  fierce  resolve  of  Penn 
sylvania's  sons,  who  were  determined  to  show 
that  the  North  could  not  be  successfully 
invaded,  even  by  veterans  led  by  the  bravest 
and  most  competent  generals  of  the  age. 

Carleton  was  in  the  saddle  as  soon  as  he 
learned  that  Lee  had  moved.  From  Parkton 
to  Hanover  Junction,  to  Westminster,  to  Har- 
risburg,  to  Green  Castle,  to  Hagerstown,  to 
Keitisville  he  rode,  and  at  these  places  he 
wrote,  hoping  to  be  in  at  the  mightiest  battle 
which,  until  this  time,  had  ever  been  fought  on 
American  soil.  For  many  days  it  was  a  mys- 


At  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg      121 

tery  to  the  Washington  authorities,  and  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  where  Lee  and  his  divi 
sions  were ;  but,  with  his  usual  good  fortune, 
Carleton  was  but  nine  miles  distant,  at  Hagers- 
town,  when  the  booming  of  the  cannon  at 
Antietam  roused  him  from  his  sleep.  It  was 
not  many  minutes  before  he  was  in  saddle  and 
away.  Instead  of  the  ride  down  the  Sharps- 
burg  pike  that  would  have  brought  him  in 
rear  of  the  enemy,  he  rode  down  the  Boons- 
boro  road,  reaching  the  right  wing  of  the 
Union  army  just  as  Hooker  was  pushing  his 
columns  into  position.  Striking  off  from  the 
main  road,  through  fields  and  farms,  he  came 
to  Antietam  creek.  He  found  a  ford,  and 
reached  a  pathway  where  a  line  of  wagons 
loaded  with  the  wounded  was  winding  down 
the  slope.  On  the  fields  above  was  a  squad 
ron  of  cavalry  to  hold  back  stragglers.  In  the 
first  ambulance  he  descried  a  silver  star,  and 
saw  the  face  of  the  brave  General  Richardson, 
dead,  with  a  bullet  through  his  breast.  At 
the  farmhouses,  rows  of  men  were  already 
lying  in  the  straw,  waiting  their  turn  at  the 
surgeon's  hands,  while  long  lines  of  men  were 
bringing  the  fallen  on  stretchers.  With  hatred 


122  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

of  war  in  his  heart,  but  with  faith  in  its  stern 
necessity,  Carleton  rode  on  to  see  the  fight 
which  raged  in  front  of  Sumner,  noticing  that 
the  cannon  of  Hooker  and  Mansfield  were 
silent,  cooling  their  lips  after  the  morning's 
fever.  Of  the  superb  Pennsylvania  Reserve 
Corps,  which  he  had  seen  a  year  ago  at  review, 
there  was  now  but  a  remnant.  He  ascended 
the  ridge,  where  thirty  pieces  of  cannon  were 
every  moment  emptying  their  black  mouths 
of  fire  and  iron. 

All  day  long  Carleton  was  witness  of  the 
battle,  and  then  sent  home  from  Sharpsburg, 
September  I9th,  in  addition  to  his  preliminary 
letter,  a  long  and  comprehensive  account  in 
five  columns  of  print.  It  was  so  animated 
in  style,  so  exact  in  particulars,  and  so  skil 
ful  and  clear  in  its  general  grouping,  that  its 
writer  was  overwhelmed  with  congratulations 
by  the  best  of  all  critics,  his  fellow  corre 
spondents.  In  two  other  letters  from  Sharps- 
burg,  he  reviewed  the  whole  subject  judicially, 
and  then  returned  home  for  a  few  days' 
recuperation. 

From  Philadelphia  we  find  two  of  his  let 
ters,  one  describing  the  transport  of  troops 


At  Antietam  and  Fredericksbur 


g 


and  the  monitors  then  on  the  stocks,  or  in 
the  Delaware,  and  another  reviewing  the  ac 
count  of  Antietam  which  he  had  read  in  the 
Charleston  Courier.  Indeed,  all  through  the 
war,  Mr.  Coffin  took  pains  to  inform  himself 
as  to  Southern  opinion,  and  the  methods  of  its 
manufacture  and  influence  by  the  press.  He 
was  thus  able  to  correct  and  purify  his  own 
judgments.  He  preserved  his  copies  of  the 
Southern  papers,  and  gradually  accumulated, 
during  and  after  the  war,  a  unique  collection 
of  the  newspapers  of  the  South.  His  first 
opinion  about  the  battle  of  Antietam,  written 
October  8,  1862,  is  the  same  as  that  which  he 
held  thirty  years  later : 

"In  reviewing  the  contest,  aided  by  the 
Southern  account,  it  seems  that  all  through 
the  day,  complete,  decisive,  annihilating  vic 
tory  lay  within  our  grasp,  and  yet  we  did 
not  take  it." 

Let  us  read  further  from  the  closing  para 
graph  of  that  letter,  which  he  wrote  in  Phila 
delphia,  before  moving  West  to  the  army  in 
Kentucky  : 

"In  saying  this,  I  raise  no  criticism,  make 
no  question  or  blame,  but  prefer  to  look  upon 


i  24  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

it  as  a  controlling  of  that  Providence  which 
notices  the  fall  of  every  sparrow.  The  time 
had  not  come  for  complete  victory, —  for  anni 
hilation  of  the  rebel  army.  We  are  not  yet 
over  the  Red  Sea.  The  baptism  of  blood  is 
not  yet  complete.  The  cause  of  the  war  is  not 
yet  removed,  —  retribution  for  crime  is  not  yet 
finished.  We  must  suffer  again.  With  firmer 
faith  than  ever  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
right,  truth,  and  justice,  let  us  accept  the  fiery 
ordeal." 

Like  the  pendulum  of  an  observatory  clock, 
the  bob-point  of  which  touches  at  each  vibra 
tion  the  mercury  which  transmits  intelligence 
of  its  movements  to  distant  points,  Carleton 
now  swung  himself  to  Cincinnati.  In  Louis 
ville  he  gave  an  account,  from  reports,  of  the 
battle  of  Perryville.  It  was  written  in  the 
utmost  haste,  with  one  eye  upon  the  hands 
of  his  watch  moving  on  to  the  minute  of  the 
closing  of  the  mail.  In  such  a  case,  according 
to  his  custom,  he  wrote  a  second  letter,  when 
possessed  with  fuller  data  from  eye-witnesses. 
In  the  heart  of  Kentucky  he  was  able  to  see 
the  effects  of  the  President's  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  which  had  been  issued  but  three 


At  Antietam  and   Fredericksburg      125 

weeks  before.  He  described  the  coming  of 
the  Confederate  army  into  Kentucky  as  "  the 
Flatterer,  dressed  in  a  white  garment,  who 
with  many  fair  speeches  would  have  turned 
Christian  and  Faithful  from  the  glittering  gates 
of  the  Golden  City,  shining  serene  and  fair 
over  the  land  of  Beulah."  The  robe  having 
dropped  from  Flatterer's  limbs,  the  Kentuckian 
saw  that  the  reality  was  hideous,  and  that  to 
follow  him  was  to  go  back  again  to  the  City  of 
Destruction.  The  Confederates  moved  south 
ward,  laden  with  plunder,  while  General  Buell, 
with  his  army  of  one  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand  men,  after  having  mildly  pursued  them 
for  twenty-one  days,  returned  to  Louisville. 
Carleton's  comment  upon  these  movements  is, 
"  Such  is  strategy." 

Finding  himself  again  in  the  trough  of  inac 
tivity,  and  ever  ready  to  mount  on  the  wave 
of  opportunity,  Carleton  moved  again  to  the 
East,  writing  in  the  cars  while  whirling  to  Vir 
ginia.  His  first  letters  from  the  East  were 
penned  at  Harper's  Ferry.  Then  began  his 
zigzag  movements,  like  a  planet.  We  find 
his  pen  active  at  Berlin,  Md.,  Purcellville,  Va., 
Upperville,  Va.,  where,  beside  the  cavalry  bat- 


126  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ties  between  Pleasanton  and  Stewart,  he  saw 
that  seven  corps  were  in  motion.  From 
Gainesville,  Warrenton  Junction,  Orleans, 
Warrenton,  Catlett's  Station,  and  again  and 
often  from  Washington,  and  from  Falmouth, 
he  sent  his  letters,  which,  if  not  always  full  of 
battle,  kept  the  heart  of  New  England  patient 
and  courageous. 

McClellan  had  been  removed,  and  Burnside, 
taking  command,  led  his  army  to  the  riverside 
before  Fredericksburg.  Carleton  wras  witness 
of  the  bombardment  of  the  city  by  the  Federal 
artillery.  From  his  coign  of  vantage  at  Gen 
eral  Sumner's  headquarters,  on  the  piazza  of 
an  elegant  mansion,  one  hundred  feet  above 
the  Rappahannock,  and  about  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  from  it,  he  could  see,  as  though  it  were 
a  great  cartoon  and  he  a  weaver  of  the  Gobelins 
tapestry  of  history,  the  awful  pattern  of  war. 
Beyond  the  sixteen  rifled  Rodman  guns  of 
large  calibre  and  long  range,  mounted  on  the 
river  bluff  and  thrust  out  through  sand-bags, 
behind  the  masses  of  infantry,  the  pontoon  and 
artillery  trains,  Carleton  stood  and  saw  the 
making  of  a  bridge  in  fifteen  minutes,  in  the 
face  of  a  terrific  musketry  fire  from  the  oppo- 


At  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg      127 

site  shore.  Then  followed  views  of  the  street 
fight  in  the  doomed  city,  the  shattered  houses, 
the  cloudless  sky,  the  setting  sun,  the  gor 
geous  sunset  dyes,  the  deepening  shadows, 
the  masses  of  men  upon  the  opposite  hills,  the 
screaming  shells,  the  puffs  of  white  smoke,  the 
bursting  storms  of  iron,  the  blood-red  flames 
illuminating  the  ruin  of  dwellings,  the  battle 
smoke  settling  in  the  valley,  so  densely  as  to 
obscure  or  hide  the  flashes.  All  this  was 
before  Carleton  on  that  afternoon  and  evening 
of  that  winter's  day,  December  nth.  Then 
he  spread  his  blanket  for  a  little  sleep,  expect 
ing  to  awake  to  behold  one  of  the  greatest 
battles  of  modern  times ;  but  the  sun  set  with 
out  the  two  great  armies  coming  to  close 
quarters. 

The  next  day  was  a  hard  one,  for  Carleton 
was  in  the  field  until  night,  now  watching  a 
bombardment,  now  a  charge,  and  again  a  long 
and  stubborn,  persistent  musketry  fire.  The 
shells  sang  near  him,  and  at  one  time  he  was 
evidently  the  target  for  a  whole  Confederate 
battery  ;  for,  within  a  few  seconds,  a  round  shot 
struck  a  few  rods  in  front  of  him,  a  second  fell 
to  the  right,  a  third  went  over  his  head,  a 


128  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

fourth  skimmed  along  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  just  over  the  backs  of  a  regiment, 
lying  flat  on  their  faces.  As  he  moved  to  the 
shelter  of  the  river  bank,  a  shot  dropped  oblig 
ingly  in  the  water  before  him.  All  day  long 
the  lines  of  batteries  on  the  hills  smoked  like 
Etna  and  Vesuvius.  Sometimes,  between  ord 
nance  and  musketry,  there  were  twenty  thou 
sand  flashes  a  minute.  Carleton  thus  far  had 
seen  no  battles  where  the  fire  equalled  that 
which  was  poured  upon  Sumner's  command 
during  the  last  grand,  but  hopeless,  charge  at 
sunset.  At  nightfall,  when  the  wearied  soldiers 
could  lie  down  for  rest,  Carleton  began  the 
work  of  writing  his  letter.  Among  other 
things  he  said: 

"With  the  deference  to  military  strategics, 
my  own  common  sense  deprecated  attempting 
the  movements  which  were  made,  as  unneces 
sary  and  unwise, — which  must  be  accomplished 
with  fearful  slaughter,  and  which  I  believed 
would  be  unsuccessful.  .  .  . 

"It  is  a  plain  of  Balaklava,  where  the  Light 
Brigade,  renowned  in  song,  made  their  fearful 
charge." 

Then  follows  a  simple  but  sufficient  diagram 


At  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg      129 

of  the  Confederate  impregnable  position,  where, 
with  only  common  printer's  type,  and  the 
"daggers"  of  punctuation  standing  for  Blakes- 
ley  and  Armstrong  guns,  printer's  ink  told  the 
story.  Though  nearly  exhausted  by  his  mani 
fold  labors  of  brain  and  muscle,  Carleton,  on 
the  1 5th,  visited  the  battle-field,  which  did  not 
exceed  one  hundred  acres,  and  the  city  in 
which  the  troops  were  quietly  quartered,  but 
in  which  a  Confederate  shell  was  falling  every 
ten  minutes.  After  surveying  the  near  and 
distant  scenes  from  the  cupola  of  an  already 
well-riddled  house,  Carleton  followed  the  army 
when  it  withdrew  to  Falmouth,  seeing  through 
his  glass  the  Confederates  leaping  upon  the 
deserted  entrenchments  and  staring  at  the 
empty  town. 

Returning  to  Washington,  he  reviewed  as 
usual  the  battle,  and  then  returned  homeward, 
according  to  his  wont,  for  three  weeks  of  rest 
and  refreshment.  His  last  letter,  before  leav 
ing  the  front,  was  a  noble  and  inspiriting  plea 
for  patience  and  continuance.  He  wrote:  "The 
army  is  ready  to  fight,  but  the  people  are  de 
spondent.  The  army  has  not  lost  its  nerve, 
its  self-possession,  its  balance  ;  it  is  more  pow- 


ijo  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

erful  to-day  than  it  has  ever  been.  It  has  no 
thought  of  giving  up  the  contest.  The  cause 
is  holy.  It  is  not  for  power  or  dominion,  but 
for  the  rich  inheritance  decreed  by  our  fathers." 
The  same  bugle  call  of  inspiration  sounded 
from  his  lips  and  pen,  when  he  rejoined  the 
army  on  the  Rappahannock,  and  Hooker  was  in 
command.  He  wrote  :  "  The  army  needs  sev 
eral  things ;  first,  to  be  supported  by  the  peo 
ple  at  home.  There  is  nothing  which  will  so 
quickly  take  the  strength  out  of  the  soldier  as 
a  blue  letter  from  home,  and  on  the  other  hand 
there  is  nothing  which  would  give  him  so  much 
life  as  a  cheerful,  hopeful  letter  from  his  friends. 
Let  every  one  look  beyond  the  immediate  pres 
ent  into  the  years  to  come,  and  think  of  the 
inheritance  he  is  to  bequeath  to  his  children. 
Let  him  see  the  coming  millions  of  our  people 
on  this  continent ;  let  him  lay  his  ear  to  the 
ground,  and  hear  the  tread  of  that  mighty 
host  which  is  to  people  the  Mississippi  Val 
ley  ;  which  will  climb  the  mountains  of  the 
West,  to  coin  the  hidden  riches  into  gold ; 
let  him  see  the  great  cities  springing  up  on 
the  Pacific  Coast;  let  him  understand  that 
this  nation  is  yet  in  its  youth  ;  that  this  con- 


At  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg      131 

tinent  is  to  be  the  highway  between  China  and 
Europe ;  let  him  behold  this  contest  in  its  vast 
proportion,  reaching  through  all  coming  time, 
and  affecting  the  entire  human  race  forever ; 
let  him  resolve  that,  come  weal  or  come  woe, 
come  life  or  come  death,  that  it  shall  be  sus 
tained,  and  it  will  be." 

Another  letter  deals  in  rather  severe  sarcasm 
with  a  friend  who  belonged  to  "the  Nightshade 
family,"  one  of  those  individuals  who  thrive 
on  darkness.  He  wrote :  cc  People  of  New 
England,  are  you  not  ashamed  of  yourselves  ? 
Away  with  your  old  womanish  fears,  your 
shivering,  your  timidity,  your  garrulousness. 
.  .  .  Sustain  your  sons  by  bold,  inspiring, 
patriotic  words  and  acts ;  act  like  men.  .  .  . 
This  army,  this  government  must  be  sustained. 
It  will  be'." 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE    IRONCLADS    OFF    CHARLESTON 

AFTER  five  letters  from  Washington,  in 
the  first  of  which  he  had  predicted  that 
in  a  few  days,  for  the  first  time  in  war,  there 
would  be  the  great  contest  between  ironclads 
and  forts,  and  the  stroke  of  fifteen-inch  shot 
against  masonry,  Carleton  set  off  for  salt  water, 
determining  to  see  the  tug-of-war  on  the  Atlan 
tic  coast.  It  was  on  Saturday  afternoon,  Feb 
ruary  yth,  that  he  stood  on  deck  of  the  steamer 
Augusta  Dinsmore  as  she  moved  through 
the  floating  masses  of  ice  down  the  Hudson 
River  to  the  sea.  This  new  ship  was  owned 
by  Adams's  Express  Company,  and  with  her 
consort,  Mary  Sandford,  was  employed  in 
carrying  barrels  of  apples,  boxes  of  clothing, 
messages  of  love,  and  tokens  of  affection  be 
tween  the  Union  soldiers  along  the  coast  and 
their  friends  at  home.  Heavily  loaded  with 
express  packages,  with  fifty  or  sixty  thousand 

132 


The  Ironclads  Off  Charleston         133 

letters,  and  with  several  hundred  fifteen-inch 
solid  shot,  packed  ready  for  delivery  by  Ad 
miral  Du  Pont  at  or  into  Fort  Sumter,  the  trim 
craft  passed  over  a  sea  like  glass,  except  that 
now  and  then  was  a  dying  groan  or  heave 
of  the  storm  of  a  week  before.  A  pleasant 
Sunday  at  sea  was  spent  with  worship,  sermon, 
and  song.  After  sixty  hours  on  salt  water, 
Carleton's  ear  caught  the  boom  of  the  surf  on 
the  beach.  The  sea-gulls  flitted  around,  and 
after  the  sun  had  rent  the  pall  of  fog,  the  town 
of  Beaufort  appeared  in  view. 

The  harbor  was  full  of  schooners  which 
had  come  from  up  North,  bringing  potatoes, 
onions,  apples,  and  Yankee  notions  for  the 
great  blue-coated  community  at  Newburgh. 
Carleton  moved  up  the  poverty-stricken  coun 
try  through  marsh,  sea-sand,  pitch-pine,  swamp, 
and  plain.  Here  and  there  were  the  shanties 
of  sand-hillers,  negro  huts,  and  scores  of  long, 
lank,  scrimped-up,  razor-backed  pigs  of  the 
Congo  breed,  as  to  color ;  but  in  speed,  racers, 
outstripping  the  fleetest  horses.  Making  his 
headquarters  at  Hilton  Head,  Carleton  made 
a  thorough  study  of  the  military  and  naval 
situation.  He  visited  the  New  England  regi- 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


ments.  He  saw  the  enlistment  of  negro  troops, 
and  devoted  one  letter  to  Colonel  Thomas 
Wentworth  Higginson's  first  South  Carolina 
regiment  of  volunteers. 

With  his  usual  luck,  that  is,  the  result  of 
intelligence  and  energy  which  left  nothing  to 
mere  luck,  Carleton  stood  on  the  steamer  Nan- 
tasket,  off  Charleston,  April  7,  1863.  Both 
admiral  and  general  had  recognized  the  war 
correspondents  as  the  historians  of  the  hour. 
At  half  past  one,  the  signal  for  sailing  was  dis 
played  from  the  flag-ship.  Then  the  ugly 
black  floating  fortresses  moved  off  in  a  line, 
each  a  third  or  a  half  a  mile  apart,  against  the 
masses  of  granite  at  Sumter  and  Moultrie,  and 
the  earthen  batteries  on  three  sides.  "There 
are  no  clouds  of  canvas,  no  beautiful  models 
of  marine  architecture,  none  of  the  stateliness 
and  majesty  which  have  marked  hundreds  of 
great  naval  engagements.  There  is  but  little 
to  the  sight  calculated  to  excite  enthusiasm. 
There  are  eight  black  specks,  and  one  oblong 
block,  like  so  many  bugs.  There  are  no  hu 
man  beings  in  sight,  —  no  propelling  power 
visible." 

A   few    minutes    later,    "  the    ocean    boils." 


The  Ironclads  Off  Charleston         135 

Columns  of  spray  are  tossed  high  in  air,  as  if 
a  hundred  submarine  mines  were  let  instantly 
off,  or  a  school  of  whales  were  trying  which 
could  spout  highest.  There  is  a  screaming  in 
the  air,  a  buzzing  and  humming  never  before 
so  loud. 

"  You  must  think  the  earth's  crust  is  rup 
tured,  and  the  volcanic  fires,  long  pent,  have 
suddenly  found  vent." 

"  There  she  is,  the  Weebawken^  the  target  of 
probably  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hun 
dred  guns,  at  close  range,  of  the  heaviest  cali 
bre  rifled  cannon,  throwing  forged  bolts  and 
steel-pointed  shot  turned  and  polished  to  a 
hair  in  the  lathes  of  English  workshops,  ad 
vancing  still,  undergoing  her  first  ordeal,  a  trial 
unparalleled  in  history.  For  fifteen  minutes 
she  meets  the  ordeal  alone." 

Soon  the  other  four  monitors  follow.  Sev 
enty  guns  a  minute  are  counted,  followed  by 
moments  of  calm,  and  scattering  shots,  but 
only  to  break  out  again  in  a  prolonged  roar 
of  thunder.  In  the  lulls  of  the  strife,  Carle- 
ton  steadied  his  glass,  and  when  the  southwest 
breeze  swept  away  the  smoke,  he  could  see 
"  increasing  pock-marks  and  discolorations 


136  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

upon  the  walls  of  the  fort,  as  if  there  had  been 
a  sudden  breaking  out  of  cutaneous  disease." 

We  now  know,  from  the  Confederate  offi 
cers  then  in  Fort  Sumter,  that  the  best  artil 
lery  made  in  England,  and  the  strongest  powder 
manufactured  in  the  Confederacy,  were  used 
during  this  two  and  a  half  hours  of  mutual 
hammering,  until  then  unparalleled  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  world.  Near  sunset,  at  5.20  P.M., 
signals  from  the  flag-ship  were  read ;  the  order 
was,  "  Retire." 

The  red  sun  sank  behind  the  sand  hills,  and 
the  silence  was  welcomed.  During  the  heavy 
cannonade,  —  like  the  Union  soldiers  who, 
obedient  to  the  hunter's  instinct,  stopped  in 
the  midst  of  a  Wilderness  battle  to  shoot  rab 
bits, —  a  Confederate  gunner  had  trained  his 
rifled  cannon  upon  the  three  non-combatant 
vessels,  the  Bibb,  the  Ben  Deford,  and  the  Nan- 
tasket,  which  lay  in  the  North  Channel  at  a 
respectful  distance,  but  quite  within  easy  range 
of  Sullivan's  Island.  Having  fired  a  half  a 
dozen  shot  which  had  fallen  unnoticed,  the 
gunner  demoralized  the  little  squadron,  and 
sent  hundreds  of  interested  spectators  running, 
jumping,  and  rolling  below  deck,  by  sending 


The  Ironclads  Off  Charleston         137 

a  shot  transversely  across  the  Nantasket.  It 
dropped  in  the  sea  about  a  hundred  yards 
from  the  bow  of  the  Ben  Deford.  Another 
shot  in  admirable  line  fell  short.  Shells  from 
Cummings  Point  had  also  been  tried  on  the 
ships  laden  with  civilians,  but  had  failed  to 
reach  them.  However,  the  correspondents 
claim  to  have  silenced  the  batteries,  —  by 
getting  out  of  the  way;  for  in  a  few  minutes 
the  cables  had  been  hauled  in,  paddle-wheels 
set  in  motion,  and  distance  increased  from  the 
muzzles  of  the  battery. 

When  the  fleet  returned,  Carleton  leaped  on 
board  of  the  slush  deck  of  the  monitor  Catskill^ 
receiving  hearty  response  from  Captain  George 
Rodgers,  who  reported  "  All  right,  nobody 
hurt,  ready  for  them  again."  I  afterwards  saw 
all  these  monitors  covered  with  indentations 
like  spinning-top  moulds  or  saucers.  They 
were  gouged,  dented,  and  bruised  by  case-shot 
that  had  struck  and  glanced  sidewise.  Here 
and  there,  it  looked  as  though  an  adamantine 
serpent  had  grooved  its  way  over  the  convex 
iron  surface,  as  a  worm  leaves  the  mark  of  its 
crawling  in  the  soft  earth  under  the  stone. 
The  Cat  skill  had  received  thirty  shots,  the  Keo~ 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


kuk  a  hundred.  Inside  of  the  Nahant,  Carleton 
found  eleven  officers  and  men  badly  contused 
by  the  flying  of  bolt-heads  in  the  turret  ;  but, 
except  from  a  temporary  jam,  her  armor  was 
intact.  On  the  Patapsco  a  ball  had  ripped 
up  the  plating  and  pierced  the  work  beneath. 
This  was  the  only  shot  that  had  penetrated 
any  of  the  monitors.  The  Weehawken  had 
in  one  place  the  pittings  of  three  shots  which, 
had  they  immediately  followed  each  other, 
might,  like  the  arrows  of  the  Earl  of  Douglas 
in  Scott's  "  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  split  each  other 
in  twain.  Except  leaving  war's  honorable  scar, 
these  three  bolts  hurt  not  the  Weehawken. 
Out  of  probably  three  thousand  projectiles 
shot  from  behind  walls,  about  three  hundred 
and  fifty  took  effect,  that  is,  one  shot  out  of 
six.  Three  tons  of  iron  were  hurled  at  Fort 
Sumter,  and  probably  six  tons  at  the  fleet. 
Fighting  inside  of  iron  towers,  the  Union  men 
had  no  one  killed,  and  but  one  mortally 
wounded.  The  Keokuk,  the  most  vulnerable 
of  all  the  ships  engaged,  sank  under  the  north 
west  wind  in  the  heavy  sea  of  the  next  day. 

It  was  long  after   midnight  when    Carleton 
finished  the  closing  lines  of  his  letter,  and  then 


The   Ironclads   Off  Charleston         139 

stepped  out  upon  the  steamer's  guard  for  a 
little  fresh  air.  Over  on  Sumter's  walls  the 
signal-light  was  being  waved.  The  black 
monitors  lay  at  their  anchorage.  Ocean,  air, 
and  moonbeams  were  calm  and  peaceful. 
From  the  flag-ship,  which  the  despatch  steamer 
visited,  the  report  was,  "  The  engagement  is  to 
be  renewed  to-morrow  afternoon."  Neverthe 
less,  the  next  day,  Admiral  Du  Pont,  dissenting 
from  the  opinions  of  his  engineers  and  inspec 
tors,  as  to  a  renewal  of  the  attack,  moreover 
finding  his  own  officers  differing  in  their 
opinions  as  to  the  ability  of  the  fleet  to  reduce 
Fort  Sumter,  ordered  no  advance.  The  enter 
prise  was,  for  the  present,  at  least,  given  up. 
So  Carleton,  after  another  letter  on  white  and 
black  humanity  in  South  Carolina,  which 
showed  convincingly  the  results  of  slavery, 
sailed  from  Hilton  Head. 

Like  the  war-horse  of  Hebrew  poetry,  he 
smelt  the  battle  afar  off,  and  looked  to  Vir 
ginia.  He  reached  home  just  in  time  to  hear 
of  the  great  conflict  at  Chancellorsville.  Rush 
ing  to  Washington,  and  gathering  up  from  all 
sources  news  of  the  disaster,  he  presented  to 
the  readers  of  the  Journal  a  clear  and  con- 


140  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

nected  story  of  the  battle.  During  the  latter 
part  of  May  and  until  the  middle  of  June,  the 
previous  weeks  having  been  times  of  inaction 
in  the  military  world,  Carleton  recruited  his 
strength  at  home.  Like  a  falcon  on  its  perch, 
he  awaited  the  opportunity  to  swoop  on  the 
quarry. 


CHAPTER   XII 

GETTYSBURG  t    HIGH    TIDE    AND    EBB 

WHEN  Lee  and  his  army,  leaving  the 
front  of  the  Union  army  and  becom 
ing  invisible,  when  President  and  people,  gen 
eral  and  chief  and  privates,  Cabinet  officers 
and  correspondents,  were  wondering  what  had 
become  of  the  rebel  hosts,  and  when  the  one 
question  in  the  North  was,  "  Where  is  General 
Lee  ?  "  Carleton,  divining  the  state  of  affairs, 
took  the  railway  to  Harrisburg.  Once  more 
he  was  an  observer  in  the  field.  His  first  letter 
is  dated  June  i6th,  and  illuminates  the  dark 
ness  like  an  electric  search-light. 

General  Lee,  showing  statesmanship  as  well 
as  military  ability,  had  chosen  a  good  time. 
The  Federal  army  was  losing  its  two  years' 
and  nine  months'  men.  Vicksburg  was  about 
to  fall.  Something  must  be  done  to  counter 
balance  this  certain  loss  to  the  Confederates. 
Paper  money  in  the  South  was  worth  but  ten 

141 


142  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

per  cent,  of  its  face  value.  Recognition  from 
Europe  must  be  won  soon,  or  the  high  tide  of 
opportunity  would  ebb,  nevermore  to  return. 
Like  a  great  wave  coming  to  its  flood,  the 
armed  host  of  the  Confederacy  was  moving  to 
break  at  Gettysburg  and  recede. 

Yet,  at  that  time,  who  had  ever  thought  of, 
or  who,  except  the  farmers  and  townsmen  and 
students  in  the  vicinity,  had  ever  seen  Gettys 
burg  ?  At  first  Carleton  supposed  that  Har 
per's  Ferry  might  be  the  scene  of  the  coming 
battle.  Again  he  imagined  it  possible  for  Lee 
to  move  down  the  Kanawha,  and  fall  upon 
defenceless  Ohio.  He  wrote  from  Harrisburg, 
from  Washington,  from  Baltimore,  from  Wash 
ington  again,  from  Baltimore  once  more,  from 
Frederick,  where  he  learned  that  Hooker  had 
been  superseded,  and  Meade,  the  Pennsylva- 
nian,  put  in  command.  On  June  joth,  writ 
ing  from  Westminster,  Md.,  he  described  the 
rapid  marching  of  the  footsore  and  hungry 
Confederates,  and  the  equally  rapid  pedestrian- 
ism  of  the  Federals.  He  revels  in  the  splen 
dors  of  nature  in  Southern  Pennsylvania,  which 
the  Germans  once  hailed  as  a  holy  land  of  com 
fort  and  liberty,  and  which,  by  their  industry, 


Gettysburg:   High  Tide  and  Ebb     143 

they  had  made  "  fair  as  the  garden  of  the  Lord." 
As  Carleton  rode  with  the  second  corps  from 
Frederick  to  Union  Town,  and  thence  to  West 
minster,  he  penned  prose  poems  in  description 
of  the  glorious  sight,  so  different  from  his  native 
and  stony  New  Hampshire. 

"  The  march  yesterday  was  almost  like  pass 
ing  .  through  paradise.  Such  broad  acres  of 
grain  rustling  in  the  breeze ;  the  hills  and 
valleys,  bathed  in  alternate  sunlight  and  shade ; 
the  trees  so  green ;  the  air  so  scented  with 
clover-blossoms  and  new-made  hay ;  the 
cherry-trees  ruby  with  ripened  fruit,  lining 
the  roadway ;  the  hospitality  of  the  people, 
made  it  pleasant  marching." 

Thus  like  the  great  forces  of  the  universe, 
which  make  the  ocean's  breast  heave  to  and 
fro,  and  send  the  tides  in  ebb  and  flood,  were 
the  great  energies  which  were  now  to  bring  two 
hundred  thousand  men  in  arms,  on  the  field  of 
Gettysburg,  in  Adams  County,  Pennsylvania. 
Forty  years  before,  as  it  is  said,  a  British  officer 
surveying  the  great  plain  with  the  ranges  of 
hills  confronting  each  other  from  opposite  sides, 
with  many  highroads  converging  at  this  point, 
declared  with  admiration  that  this  would  be  a 


144  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

superb  site  for  a  great  battle.  Now  the  vision 
of  possibility  was  to  become  reality,  and  Carle- 
ton  was  to  be  witness  of  it  all.  Since  mid-June 
he  had  been  on  the  rail  or  in  the  saddle.  He 
was  now  to  spend  sleepless  nights  and  laborious 
days  that  were  to  tax  his  physical  resources  to 
their  utmost. 

With  his  engineer's  eye,  and  from  the  heights 
overlooking  the  main  field,  he  took  in  the 
whole  situation.  From  various  points  he  saw 
the  awful  battles  of  July  id  and  jd,  which 
he  described  in  two  letters,  written  each  time 
after  merciful  night  came  down  upon  the  field 
of  slaughter.  He  saw  the  charges  and  defeats, 
the  counter-charges  and  the  continued  carnage, 
and  the  final  cavalry  onset  made  by  the  rebels. 
He  was  often  under  fire.  An  impression  that 
lasted  all  his  life,  and  to  which  he  often  referred, 
was  the  result  of  that  great  movement  of  Pick- 
ett's  division  across  the  field,  after  the  long 
bombardment  of  the  Federal  forces  by  the  Con 
federate  artillery.  Retiring  before  the  heavy 
cannonade,  Carleton  had  remained  in  the  rear, 
until,  hearing  the  cheers  of  the  Union  soldiers, 
he  reached  the  slope  in  time  to  see  the  gray  and 
brown  masses  in  the  distance. 


Gettysburg:   High  Tide  and  Ebb     1-45 

As  the  great  wave  of  human  life  receded, 
that  for  a  moment  had  pierced  the  centre  of 
the  Union  forces,  only  to  be  hurled  back 
and  broken,  Carleton  rode  out  down  the 
hill  and  on  the  plain  into  the  wheat  field. 
Then  and  there,  seeing  the  awful  debris, 
came  the  conviction  that  the  rebellion  had 
seen  its  highest  tide,  and  that  henceforth  it 
would  be  only  ebb. 

When  is  a  battle  over,  and  how  can  one 
know  it  ?  That  night,  Friday,  and  the  next 
day,  Saturday,  Carleton  felt  satisfied  that  Lee 
was  in  full  retreat,  though  General  Meade  did 
not  seem  to  think  so.  Carleton's  face  was  now 
set  Bostonwards.  Not  being  able  to  use  the 
army  telegraph,  he  gave  his  first  thought  to 
reaching  the  railroad.  The  nearest  point  was 
at  Westminster,  twenty-eight  miles  distant,  from 
which  a  freight-train  was  to  leave  at  4  P.M. 

Rain  was  falling  heavily,  but  with  Whitelaw 
Reid  as  companion,  Carleton  rode  the  twenty- 
eight  miles  in  two  hours  and  a  half.  Covered 
with  mud  from  head  to  foot,  and  soused  to  the 
skin,  the  two  riders  reached  Westminster  at 
3.55  P.  M.  As  the  train  did  not  immediately 
start,  Carleton  arranged  for  the  care  of  his. 


146  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

beast,  and  laying  his  blanket  on  the  engine's 
boiler,  dried  it.  He  then  made  his  bed  on  the 
floor  of  the  bumping  car,  getting  some  sleep 
of  an  uncertain  quality  before  the  train  rolled 
into  Baltimore. 

At  the  hotel  on  Sunday  morning  he  was 
seized  by  his  friend,  E.  B.  Washburn,  Grant's 
indefatigable  supporter  and  afterwards  Minis 
ter  to  France,  who  asked  for  news.  Carleton 
told  him  of  victory  and  the  retreat  of  Lee. 
<c  You  lie,"  was  the  impulsive  answer.  Wash- 
burn's  nerves  had  for  days  been  under  a  strain. 
Then,  after  telling  more,  Carleton  telegraphed 
a  half-column  of  news  to  the  Journal  in  Bos 
ton.  This  message,  sent  thence  to  Washing 
ton,  was  the  first  news  which  President  Lincoln 
and  the  Cabinet  had  of  Gettysburg.  After  a 
bath  and  hoped-for  rest,  Carleton  was  not 
allowed  to  keep  silence.  All  day,  and  until 
the  train  was  entered  at  night  for  New  York, 
he  was  kept  busy  in  telling  the  good  news. 

The  rest  of  the  story  of  this  famous  "  beat," 
as  newspaper  men  call  it,  is  given  in  Carleton's 
own  words  to  a  Boston  reporter,  a  day  or  two 
before  the  celebration  of  his  golden  wedding  in 
February,  1896  : 


Gettysburg:   High  Tide  and  Ebb     147 

"  Monday  I  travelled  by  train  to  Boston, 
writing  some  of  my  story  as  I  rode  along,  and 
wiring  ahead  to  the  paper  what  they  might 
expect  from  me.  When  I  reached  the  office 
I  found  Newspaper  Row  packed  with  peo 
ple,  just  as  you  will  see  it  now  on  election 
night,  and  every  one  more  than  anxious  for 
details. 

"It  was  too  late,  however,  for  anything  but 
the  morning  edition  of  Tuesday,  but  the  paper 
wired  all  over  New  England  the  story  it  would 
have,  and  the  edition  finally  run  off  was  a  large 
one. 

"  I  locked  myself  in  a  room  and  wrote 
steadily  until  the  paper  went  to  press,  seeing 
no  one  but  the  men  handling  the  copy,  and, 
when  the  last  sheet  was  done,  threw  myself  on 
a  pile  of  papers,  thoroughly  exhausted,  and  got 
a  few  hours'  sleep.  I  went  to  my  home  in  the 
suburbs,  the  next  day,  but  my  townspeople 
wouldn't  let  me  rest.  They  came  after  me 
with  a  band  and  wagon,  and  I  had  to  get  out 
and  tell  the  story  in  public  again. 

"  The  next  day  I  left  for  the  front  again, 
riding  forward  from  Westminster,  where  I  had 
left  my  horse,  and  thus  covering  about  100 


148  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

miles  on  horseback,  and  800  miles  by  rail,  from 
the  time  I  left  the  army  until  I  got  back  again. 

"  Coffee  was  all  that  kept  me  up  during  that 
time,  but  my  nerves  did  not  recover  from  it 
for  a  long  time.  In  fact,  I  don't  think  I  could 
have  gone  through  the  war  as  I  did,  had  I  not 
made  it  a  practice  to  take  as  long  a  rest  as 
possible  after  a  big  battle  or  engagement." 

In  his  letter  written  after  the  decisive  event 
of  1863,  Carleton  pays  a  strong  tribute  of 
praise  to  the  orderly  retreat  which  Lee  made 
from  Pennsylvania.  He  was  bitterly  disap 
pointed  that  the  defeated  army  should  have 
been  allowed  to  escape.  With  the  soldiers,  he 
looked  forward  with  dread  to  another  Virginia 
campaign.  Nevertheless,  he  was  all  ready  for 
duty.  Having  found  his  horse  and  resumed 
his  saddle,  he  spent  a  day  revisiting  the  An- 
tietam  battle-field.  It  was  still  strewn  with  the 
debris  of  the  fight:  old  boots,  shoes,  knapsacks, 
belts,  clothes  all  mouldy  in  the  dampness  of 
the  woods.  He  found  flattened  bullets  among 
the  leaves,  fragments  of  shells,  and,  sickening 
to  the  sight,  here  and  there  a  skull  protruding 
from  the  ground,  the  bleaching  bones  of  horses 
and  men.  The  Bunkers'  church  and  the 


Gettysburg:   High  Tide  and  Ebb     149 

houses  were  rent,  shattered,  pierced,  and  pitted 
with  the  marks  of  war. 

Even  until  July  i5th,  when  he  sent  des 
patches  from  Sharpsburg,  he  nourished  the 
hope  that  Lee's  army  could  still  be  destroyed 
before  reaching  Richmond.  This  was  not  to 
be.  Like  salt  on  a  sore,  and  rubbed  in  hard, 
Carleton's  sensibilities  were  cut  to  the  quick, 
when,  on  again  coming  home,  he  found  the 
people  in  Boston  and  vicinity  debating  the 
question  whether  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  had 
been  a  victory  for  the  Union  army  or  not. 
Some  were  even  inclined  to  consider  it  a  defeat. 
Carleton's  letter  of  July  24th,  written  in  Bos 
ton,  fairly  fumes  with  indignation  at  the  blind 
critics  and  in  defence  of  the  hard  work  of  the 
ever  faithful  old  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
"which  has  had  hard  fighting,  —  terrible  fight 
ing,  and  little  praise."  He  lost  patience  with 
those  staying  at  home  depreciating  the  army 
and  finding  fault  with  General  Meade.  He 
wrote  :  "  Frankly  and  bluntly,  I  cannot  appre 
ciate  such  stupidity.  Why  not  as  well  ask  if 
the  sun  rose  this  morning  ?  That  battle  was 
the  greatest  of  the  war.  It  was  a  repulse 
which  became  a  disastrous  defeat  to  General 


5o 


Charles  Carleton   Coffin 


Lee."  He  sarcastically  invited  critics,  "instead 
of  staying  at  home  to  weaken  the  army  by 
finding  fault,  to  step  into  the  ranks  and  help 
do  the  ( bagging,'  the  c  cutting  up/  and  the 
1  routing '  which  they  thought  ought  to  have 
been  done." 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE    BATTLES    IN    THE    WILDERNESS 

AFTER  the  exhausting  Gettysburg  cam 
paign,  Carleton  was  obliged  to  rest  some 
weeks.  So  far  as  his  letter-book  shows,  he  did 
not  engage  in  war  correspondence  again  until 
the  opening  of  the  next  year,  when  he  entered 
upon  his  fourth  hundred  of  letters,  and  began  a 
tour  of  observation  through  the  border  States. 
Traversing  those  between  the  Ohio  River  and 
the  Lakes,  besides  Missouri  and  Kansas,  he 
kept  the  Journal  readers  well  informed  of  the 
state  of  sentiment,  and  showed  the  preparations 
made  to  pursue  the  war.  At  the  last  of  April, 
we  find  him  in  Washington  preparing  his  read 
ers  for  the  great  events  of  the  Wilderness,  in 
letters  which  clearly  describe  the  prospective 
"  valley  of  decision."  The  grandest  sight,  that 
week,  in  the  city,  was  the  marching  of  Burn- 
side's  veteran  corps,  in  which  were  not  only 
the  bronzed  white  heroes,  following  their  own 


1 52  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

torn  and  pierced  battle-flags,  but  also  regiments 
of  black  patriots,  slaves  but  a  few  months 
before,  but  now  no  longer  sons  of  the  Dark 
Continent,  but  of  the  Land  of  Hope  and 
Opportunity.  From  slavery  they  had  been  re 
deemed  in  the  Free  Republic.  Unpaid  sons  of 
toil  once,  but  free  men  now,  they  were  marching 
with  steady  step  to  certain  victory  or  to  cer 
tain  death,  for  at  that  moment  came  the  sicken 
ing  details  of  the  massacre  of  Fort  Pillow.  On 
the  balcony  of  the  hotel,  standing  beside  the 
handsome  Burnside,  was  the  tall  and  pale  man 
who,  having  given  them  freedom,  now  recog 
nized  them  as  soldiers.  As  they  halted  by  the 
roadside  and  read  the  accounts  of  massacre, 
their  white  teeth  clenched,  and  oaths,  not  alto 
gether  profane,  were  sworn  for  vengeance. 

Out  from  the  broad  avenues  of  the  nation's 
capital,  and  away  from  the  sight  of  the  marble 
dome,  the  great  army  and  its  faithful  historians 
moved  from  sight,  to  the  bloodiest  contests  of 
war.  No  more  splendid  pageants  in  the  fields, 
but  close,  hard,  unromantic  destruction  in  the 
woods  and  among  trenches  and  craters  !  One 
mind  now  directed  all  the  movements  of  the 
many  armies  of  the  Union,  making  all  the 


The  Battle  in  the  Wilderness         153 

forces  at  the  control  of  the  nation  into  one 
mighty  trip-hammer,  for  the  crushing  of  Slav 
ery's  conspiracy  against  Liberty. 

General  Grant  recognized  in  Carleton  his 
old  friend  whom  he  first  met  in  Cairo,  and 
whom  he  had  invited  to  take  a  nail-keg  for  a 
seat.  Having  established  his  reputation  for 
absolute  truthfulness,  Carleton  won  not  only 
Grant's  personal  friendship,  but  obtained  a  pass 
signed  "  U.  S.  Grant,"  which  was  good  in  all 
the  military  departments  of  the  country,  with 
transportation  on  all  government  trains  and 
steamers.  In  hours  of  relaxation,  Carleton  was 
probably  as  familiar  with  Grant  as  was  any 
officer  on  the  general's  own  staff.  Carleton 
profoundly  honored  and  believed  in  Grant  as 
a  trained,  regular  army  officer  who  could  cut 
loose  from  European  traditions  and  methods, 
and  fight  in  the  way  required  in  Virginia  in 
1864  and  1865.  Further,  Grant  wanted  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  to  destroy  Lee's  army 
without  the  aid  of,  or  reinforcement  from,  West 
ern  troops. 

Carleton  comprehended  the  magnitude  of  the 
coming  campaign,  in  which  were  centred  the 
hopes  of  eighteen  millions  of  Americans.  In 


i  54  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

his  eyes  it  was  the  most  stupendous  campaign 
of  modern  times.  "  It  is  not  the  movement  of 
one  army  merely,  but  of  three  great  armies,  to 
crush  out  treason,  to  preserve  the  institutions 
of  freedom,  and  consolidate  ourselves  into  a 
nation."  Butler  and  Smith  were  to  advance 
from  the  Chesapeake,  the  armies  of  the  South 
and  West  were  in  time  to  march  northward  in 
Lee's  rear,  while  from  the  West  and  North 
were  to  come  fresh  hosts  to  consummate  the 
grand  combination. 

Carleton's  foresight  had  shown  him  that,  in 
this  campaign,  an  assistant  for  himself  would 
be  absolutely  necessary  ;  for,  in  one  respect, 
Grant's  advance  was  unique.  Instead  of,  as 
heretofore,  the  Union  army's  having  its  rear  in 
close  contact  with  the  North,  and  all  the  lines 
and  methods  of  communication  being  open,  the 
soldiers  and  the  correspondents  were  to  advance 
into  the  Wilderness,  and  cut  themselves  off 
from  the  railway,  the  telegraph,  and  even  the 
ordinary  means  of  communication  by  horse, 
wheel,  and  boat.  Carleton,  at  short  notice  to 
the  young  man,  chose  for  his  assistant  his 
nephew,  Edmund  Carleton,  now  a  veteran  sur 
geon  and  physician  in  New  York,  but  then  in 


The   Battle  in  the  Wilderness         155 

the  freshness  and  fullness  of  youth,  health,  and 
strength.  Alert  and  vigorous,  fertile  in  re 
source,  courageous  and  persevering,  young 
Carleton  became  the  fleet  messenger  of  the 
great  war  correspondent.  He  assisted  to  gather 
news,  and  soon  learned  the  art  of  winning  the 
soldier's  heart,  and  of  extracting,  from  officers 
and  privates,  scraps  and  items  of  intelligence. 
Even  as  the  hunter  becomes  expert  in  noting 
and  interpreting  signs  in  air  and  on  earth  which 
yield  him  spoil,  so  young  Carleton,  trained  by 
his  uncle,  quickly  learned  how  to  secure  news, 
and  to  make  a  "  beat."  He  kept  himself  well 
supplied  to  the  extent  of  his  ability  with  to 
bacco, —  always  welcome  to  the  veterans,  for 
which  some  "would  almost  sell  their  souls  ;" 
and  with  newspapers,  for  which  officers  would 
often  give  what  was  worth  more  than  gold,  — 
items  of  information,  from  which  letters  could 
be  distilled,  and  on  which  prophecies  could  be 
based.  Very  appropriately,  Carleton  dedicates 
his  fourth  book  on  the  war,  "  Freedom  Tri 
umphant,"  to  his  fleet  messenger. 

Carleton's  first  letter  in  the  last  long  cam 
paign  is  dated  May  4,  1864,  from  Brandy 
Station.  There  four  corps  were  assembled : 


156  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

the  Second,  Hancock's ;  the  Fifth,  Warren's ; 
the  Sixth,  Sedgwick's  ;  the  Ninth,  Burnside's. 
With  Sheridan's  riders,  these  made  a  great  city 
of  tents.  The  cavalry  was  not  the  cavalry  of 
Scott's  day,  but  was  in  its  potency  a  new  arm 
of  the  service.  From  this  time  forth,  the 
Confederate  authorities,  by  neglecting  this  arm 
of  their  service,  furnished  one  chief  cause  of 
final  failure,  while  those  in  Washington  steadily 
increased  in  generous  recognition  of  the  power 
of  union  of  man  and  horse.  In  equal  ability 
of  brute  and  rider  to  endure  fatigue,  the 
Union  cavalryman  under  Sheridan  was  a  ver 
itable  centaur. 

While  the  great  army  lay  waiting  and  ex 
pectant  at  Brandy  Station,  it  was  significant  to 
Carleton  when  the  swift-riding  orderlies  sud 
denly  left  headquarters  carrying  sealed  pack 
ages  to  the  corps  commanders.  First  began 
the  tramping  of  the  cavalry.  Next  followed 
the  movement  of  two  divisions  of  the  Fifth 
Corps.  All  night  long  was  heard  the  rumble 
of  artillery.  Carleton  wrote  :  "  Peering  from 
my  window  upon  the  shadowy  landscape  at 
midnight,  I  saw  the  glimmering  of  thousands 
of  camp-fires,  over  all  the  plain.  Hillside, 


The  Battle  in  the  Wilderness 


57 


valley,  nook,  and  dell,  threw  up  its  flickering 
light.  Long  trains  of  white  canvas  wagons 
disappeared  in  the  distant  gloom. 

"At  three  A.  M.,  the  reveille,  the  roll  of  in 
numerable  drums,  and  the  blow  of  bugles 
sounded,  and  as  morning  brightened,  dark 
masses  of  armed  men  stood  in  long  line. 
With  the  first  beams  of  the  sun  peering  over 
the  landscape,  they  moved  from  the  hills. 
Disjointed  parts  were  welded  together,  regi 
ments  became  brigades,  brigades  grew  into 
divisions,  and  divisions  became  corps.  The 
sunlight  flashed  from  a  hundred  thousand 
bayonets  and  sabres."  Thus  in  a  few  hours 
a  great  city  of  male  inhabitants,  numbering 
over  the  tenth  of  a  million,  disappeared.  By 
night-time,  in  a  rapid  march,  Grant  was  in 
headquarters  in  a  deserted  house  near  the  Ger- 
mania  Ford.  There  Carleton  noticed  the  gen 
eral's  simple  style  of  living.  Unostentatious 
in  all  his  habits,  he  smoked  constantly,  often 
whittling  a  stick  while  thinking,  and  wasting 
no  words.  Grant  had  stolen  a  march  upon 
Lee,  and  was  as  near  Richmond  as  were  the 
Confederates,  who  must  attack  him  in  flank 
and  retard  him  if  possible.  Knowing  every 


158  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

road  and  bridle-path  in  the  Wilderness,  Lee, 
having  drawn  all  the  resources  of  the  Confed 
eracy  east  of  Georgia  into  his  lines,  had 
gathered  an  army  the  largest  and  the  most 
complete  he  had  yet  commanded.  He  must 
now  cut  up  Grant's  host ;  or,  if  unable  to  do 
so,  even  without  defeat,  must  begin  a  march 
which  meant  some  American  Saint  Helena  as 
its  end. 

The  campaign  which  followed  in  that 
densely  wooded  part  of  Virginia,  a  few  miles 
west  of  the  former  battle-field  of  Chancellors- 
ville,  had  not  been  paralleled  for  hardship 
during  the  whole  war.  In  the  ten  days  suc 
ceeding  May  4th,  when  the  army  broke  camp 
at  Culpeper  and  Brandy  Station,  there  had 
been  a  march  of  eighteen  miles,  the  crossing 
of  the  Rapidan  with  hard  fighting  on  May  5th, 
and  on  the  6th,  the  great  battle  in  the  Wilder 
ness,  among  the  trees  from  which  the  foe  could 
hardly  be  distinguished.  On  the  yth,  there 
was  fighting  all  along  the  line,  with  the  .night 
march  after  Spottsylvania,  and  on  Sunday,  the 
8th,  under  the  burning  sun,  a  sharp  fight  by 
the  Fifth  Corps.  On  the  9th,  another  terrific 
battle  followed,  in  which  three  corps  were 


The  Battle  in  the  Wilderness         159 

engaged,  one  of  them,  the  Sixth,  losing  its 
noble  commander,  Sedgwick,  with  a  score  or 
two  of  able  officers.  On  the  loth,  in  the 
afternoon,  a  pitched  battle  was  fought  all  along 
the  line,  lasting  until  midnight,  in  which  all 
the  corps  were  engaged.  On  Wednesday,  the 
nth,  skirmishing  and  picket  firing  formed  the 
order  of  the  day  along  the  whole  front.  On 
Thursday,  the  I2th,  at  daybreak,  the  Second 
Corps  began  its  attack,  capturing  twenty-three 
guns  and  several  thousand  prisoners.  Sunday, 
the  i  Jth,  was  a  time  of  rain,  hard  work,  hun 
ger,  and  fatigue.  In  a  word,  within  twelve 
days  there  had  been  four  great  pitched  battles, 
with  heavy  fighting,  mainly  in  the  woods,  and 
hard  pounding  on  both  sides,  with  many  thou 
sands  of  dead  and  wounded. 

During  the  war  Carleton  had  seen  no  such 
fighting,  suffering,  patience,  determination. 
General  Grant  freely  admitted  that  the  fight 
ing  had  been  without  a  parallel  during  the  war. 
There  was  little  work  done  by  the  artillery. 
Swords  and  bayonets  were  but  ornaments  or 
emblems.  Only  lead  had  the  potency  of  death 
in  it.  Even  the  cavalry  dismounted,  sought 
cover,  shooting  each  other  out  of  position 


160  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

with  their  carbines.  Bullets,  which  do  the  kill 
ing,  were  the  fixed  forces.  In  war  it  is  mus 
ketry  that  kills,  and  it  was  a  question  which 
side  could  stand  murder  the  longest. 

At  the  end  of  the  Wilderness  episodes,  Carle- 
ton,  after  first  answering  those  critics  far  in  the 
rear,  who,  to  all  the  noble  tenacity  of  Grant  and 
his  army,  queried  "  Cui  bono"  wrote  :  "  I  confi 
dently  expect  that  he  [Grant]  will  accomplish 
what  he  has  undertaken,  because  he  is  deter 
mined,  has  tenacity  of  purpose,  measures  his 
adversary  at  his  true  value,  expects  hard  fight 
ing,  and  prepares  for  it."  It  was  trying  almost 
to  discouragement,  to  this  brave,  honest,  pa 
tient  seeker  after  truth,  to  find  with  what  chaff 
and  husk  of  imaginary  news,  manufactured 
in  Washington  and  elsewhere,  the  editors  of 
newspapers  had  to  satisfy  the  hungry  souls  of 
the  waiting  ones  at  home. 

In  one  of  the  engagements,  when  our  right 
wing  had  been  forced  by  the  Confederates; 
when  the  loud  rebel  yells  were  heard  so  near 
that  the  teamsters  of  the  Sixth  Corps  were 
frightened  into  a  panic,  and,  cutting  the  traces, 
ran  so  far  and  wide  that  it  was  two  days  before 
they  were  got  together  again  ;  when,  to  many 


The  Battle  in  the  Wilderness         161 

army  officers,  it  seemed  the  day  had  been  lost, 
—  as  lost  it  had  been,  save  for  the  stubborn 
valor  of  the  Sixth  Corps ;  when  many  a  face 
blanched,  Carleton  looked  at  Grant.  There 
was  the  modern  Silent  One,  tranquil  amid  the 
waves  of  battle.  Sitting  quietly,  with  perfect 
poise,  eyes  on  the  ground,  and  steadily  smok 
ing,  he  whittled  a  stick,  neither  flesh  nor  spirit 
quailing.  "  He  himself  knew  what  he  would 
do."  And  he  did  wait,  and,  in  waiting,  won. 
Carleton's  faith  in  Grant,  strong  from  the  first, 
was  now  as  a  mountain,  unshakable. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

GAMP    LIFE    AND    NEWS  -  GATHERING 

THE  story  of  the  Wilderness  campaign, 
during  which  were  fought  the  greatest 
musketry  battles  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
with  their  awful  slaughter,  has  been  told  by 
hundreds  of  witnesses,  and  by  Carleton  himself 
in  his  books ;  but  the  life  of  the  camp  and  how 
the  great  army  was  handled,  how  the  news  was 
forwarded,  and  how  Carleton  beat  the  govern 
ment  couriers  and  all  his  fellow  historians  of 
the  hour,  getting  the  true  report  of  the  awful 
struggle  before  the  country,  has  not  been  told, 
or  at  least,  only  in  part.  Let  us  try  to  recall 
some  of  the  incidents. 

In  the  first  place,  this  was  the  time  of  the 
year  when  the  flies  and  manifold  sort  of  ver 
min,  flying,  crawling,  hopping,  hungry,  and 
ever  biting,  were  in  the  full  rampancy  of  their 
young  vigor.  It  was  not  only  spiteful  enemies 

in   human  form,  that  sent  crashing  shells  and 

162 


Camp   Life  and  News-gathering       163 

piercing  bullets,  but  every  kind  of  nipping, 
boring,  sucking,  and  stinging  creatures  in  the 
air  and  on  the  earth,  that  our  brave  soldiers, 
and  especially  our  wounded,  had  to  face.  Even 
to  the  swallowing  of  a  mouthful  of  coffee, 
or  the  biting  of  a  piece  of  hard  tack,  it  was  a 
battle.  Flies,  above,  around,  and  everywhere, 
made  it  difficult  to  eat  without  taking  in  ver 
min  also.  Even  upon  the  most  careful  man, 
the  growth  of  parasites  in  the  clothing  or  upon 
the  person  was  a  certainty.  Within  twenty-four 
hours  the  carcass  of  a  horse,  left  on  the  field  of 
battle,  seemed  to  move  with  new  and  multitu 
dinous  life  suddenly  generated.  The  stench 
of  the  great  battle-fields  was  unspeakable,  and 
the  sudden  creation  of  incalculable  hosts  of 
insects  to  do  nature's  scavenger  work  was  a 
phenomenon  necessary,  but  to  human  nerves 
horrible.  The  turkey-buzzards  gathered  in 
clouds  for  their  hideous  banquet. 

All  this  made  the  work  of  the  surgeons 
greater,  and  the  sufferings  of  the  wounded 
more  intense ;  yet,  redeeming  the  awful  sight 
of  torn  and  mangled  humanity,  was  the  splen 
did  discipline  and  order  of  the  medical  staff. 
Upon  the  first  indications  of  a  battle,  the  regi- 


164  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

mental  wagons  of  each  corps  would  be  driven 
up  to  some  real  or  supposed  safe  place.  It 
was  the  work  of  but  a  few  moments  for  the 
tables  to  be  spread  with  all  their  terrible  array 
of  steel  instruments,  while  close  at  hand  would 
be  the  stores  of  lint,  bandages,  towels,  basins, 
and  all  the  paraphernalia  which  science  and 
long  experience  had  devised.  These  dimin 
ished,  in  some  measure,  the  horrors  of  the 
battle  for  at  least  the  wounded.  It  was  a  sub 
lime  and  beautiful  sight,  as  compared  with  the 
wars  of  even  a  century  ago,  when  the  surgeon 
had  scarcely  a  recognized  position  in  the  army. 
In  the  very  midst  of  the  hell  of  fire  and  flame 
and  noise,  the  relief  parties,  with  their  stretchers, 
would  go  out  and  return  with  their  burdens. 
Soon  the  neighborhood  of  the  surgeon's  wagon 
looked  like  a  harvest-field  with  the  windrows 
of  cut  grain  upon  it.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
there  was  often  more  real  danger  in  this  going 
and  coming  from  rear  to  front,  and  from  front 
to  rear,  than  on  the  very  battle  line  itself. 
Many  a  man  preferred  to  stand  in  the  fighting 
files  with  the  excitement  and  glory,  than  to  get 
out  into  the  uncertain  regions  of  wandering 
balls  and  bursting  shells.  The  Carletons,  both 


Camp   Life  and  News-gathering       165 

uncle  and  nephew,  had  often,  while  out  collect 
ing  news,  to  scud  from  cover  to  cover,  and  amid 
the  "  zip,  zip  "  of  bullets.  Dangerous  as  the 
service  was,  there  was  little  reward  to  the  eye 
sight,  for  the  Confederate  army,  like  the  Jap 
anese  dragon  of  art,  was  to  be  seen  only  in 
bits,  here  and  there. 

How  easy  for  us  now,  in  the  leisure  of 
abundant  time  and  with  all  the  fresh  light  that 
science  has  shed  upon  surgery,  and  focussed 
upon  the  subject  of  gunshot  wounds,  to  criti 
cise  the  surgeons  of  that  day,  who,  with  hun 
dreds  of  men  each  awaiting  in  agony  his  turn, 
were  obliged  to  decide  within  minutes,  yea, 
even  seconds,  upon  a  serious  operation,  with 
out  previous  preparation  or  reinforcement  of 
the  patient.  The  amputation,  the  incision,  the 
probing  had  to  be  done  then  and  there,  on  the 
instant.  It  is  even  wonderful  that  the  sur 
geons  did  as  well  as  they  did.  Often  it  was  a 
matter  of  quick  decision  as  to  whether  any 
thing  should  be  attempted.  One  look  at 
many  a  case  was  enough  to  decide  that  death 
was  too  near.  Often  the  man  died  in  the 
stretcher ;  sometimes,  when  marked  for  the 
operating-table,  he  was  asleep  in  his  last  sleep 


1 66  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

before  his  turn  came.  Surgeons,  hospital 
stewards,  nurses,  detailed  men,  had  to  concen 
trate  into  moments  what  in  ordinary  hospital 
routine  may  require  hours. 

Human  nature  was  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms  when  hunger  made  the  possessors  of  a 
stomach  forget  whether  they  were  men  or 
wolves.  The  heat  was  so  intense,  the  march 
ing  so  severe,  that  many  of  the  men  would 
throw  away  blankets,  rations,  and  equipments, 
and  then  make  up  in  camp  by  stealing.  Se 
vere  punishment  was  meted  out  when  ammu 
nition  was  thrown  away.  The  debris  on  the 
line  of  march,  and  the  waste,  was  tremendous. 
Only  strict  military  discipline  made  property 
respected.  Even  then,  the  new  conscript  had 
to  look  out  for  his  bright  and  serviceable  mus 
ket  when  the  old  veteran's  arms  were  lost  or 
out  of  order.  The  newspaper  correspondent 
owning  a  good  horse  had  to  keep  watch  and 
ward,  while  so  many  dismounted  cavalrymen 
whose  horses  had  been  shot  were  as  restless  as 
fish  out  of  water.  It  was  hard  enough  even 
for  the  soldiers  to  get  rations  during  the  Wil 
derness  campaign,  harder  often  for  the  men  of 
letters.  Had  it  not  been  for  kind  quarter- 


Camp   Life  and  News-gathering       167 

masters,  and  the  ability  of  the  correspondents 
to  find  the  soft  side  of  their  hearts,  they  must 
have  starved.  Yet  the  rapidity  with  which 
soldiers  on  their  forced  marches  could  turn 
fences  into  fires  and  coffee  into  a  blood-warmer 
was  amazing.  The  whole  process  from  cold 
rails  to  hot  coffee  inside  the  stomach  often 
occupied  less  than  twenty  minutes.  In  these 
"ramrod  days,"  "pork  roasts"  —  slices  of 
bacon  warmed  in  the  flame  or  toasted  over  the 
red  coals  —  made,  with  hard  tack,  a  delicious 
breakfast. 

Once  when  the  Second  Corps  had  captured 
several  thousand  Confederate  prisoners,  who 
were  corralled  in  an  open  field  in  order  to  be 
safely  guarded,  and  their  commander  brought 
into  the  presence  of  General  Grant,  the  former 
remarked  that  his  men  had  had  nothing  to 
eat  for  the  past  twenty-four  hours.  Instantly 
Grant  gave  the  order  for  several  wagon-loads 
of  crackers  to  be  brought  up  and  distributed 
to  the  hungry.  Thereupon  appeared  a  spec 
tacle  that  powerfully  impressed  young  Carle- 
ton.  The  six-muled  teams  appeared  in  a  few 
moments  and  were  whipped  up  alongside  of 
the  Virginia  rail  fence.  Then  the  stalwart 


1 68  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

teamsters,  aided  by  some  of  the  boys  in  blue, 
stood  beside  the  wagons  to  distribute  boxes. 
Two  men,  taking  each  the  end  of  a  box  in 
hand,  after  two  or  three  preparatory  swings, 
heaved  the  box  full  of  biscuit  up  in  the  air 
and  off  into  the  field.  Within  the  observation 
of  young  Carleton,  no  box,  while  full,  ever 
reached  the  ground,  but  was  seized  while  yet  in 
the  air,  gripped  and  ripped  open  by  the  men  that 
waited  like  hungry  wolves.  They  tore  open  the 
packed  rows  of  crackers  and  fairly  jammed 
them  down  their  famished  mouths,  breaking 
up  the  hard  pieces  in  their  hands  while  waiting 
for  their  teeth  to  do  its  hasty  work.  Human 
ity  at  its  noblest,  in  Grant's  instantly  ordering 
food,  and  in  its  most  animal  phase  of  neces 
sity,  in  the  hungry  rebels  devouring  sustenance, 
were  illustrated  on  that  day. 

After  work  with  the  pen  concerning  the 
great  battles  in  the  Wilderness,  Carleton's 
great  question  was  how  to  get  his  letters  to 
Boston.  The  first  bundle  was  carried  by  Mr. 
Wing,  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  the  second 
by  Mr.  Coffin's  nephew,  Edmund  Carleton. 
The  nearest  point  occupied  by  the  Union 
army,  which  had  communication  with  the 


Camp   Life  and  News-gathering       169 

North  by  either  boat,  mail  or  telegraph,  was 
Fredericksburg,  more  than  forty  miles  to  the 
eastward.  To  reach  this  place  one  must  ride 
through  a  region  liable  at  any  moment  to  be 
crossed  by  regular  Confederate  cavalry,  Mos- 
by's  troops,  or  rebel  partisans.  There  were 
here  and  there  outposts  of  the  Union  cavalry, 
but  the  danger,  to  a  small  armed  party,  and 
much  more  to  a  single  civilian  rider,  was  very 
great.  Nevertheless,  young  Carleton  was 
given  his  uncle's  letters,  with  the  injunction  to 
ride  his  horse  so  as  not  to  kill  it  before  reach 
ing  Fredericksburg.  "  The  horse's  life  is  of 
no  importance,  compared  with  the  relief  of  our 
friends'  anxiety ;  and,  if  necessary  to  secure 
your  purpose  of  prompt  delivery,  let  the  horse 
die,  but  preserve  its  life  if  you  can." 

To  make  success  as  near  to  certainty  as  pos 
sible,  young  Carleton  took  counsel  with  the 
oldest  and  wisest  cavalrymen.  He  then  con 
cluded  to  take  the  advice  of  one,  who  told  him 
to  give  his  horse  a  pint  of  corn  for  breakfast 
and  allow  the  animal  plenty  of  time  to  eat  and 
chew  the  fodder  well.  Then,  during  the  day, 
let  the  beast  have  all  the  water  he  wanted,  but 
no  food  till  he  reached  his  destination.  For- 


170  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

tunately,  his  horse,  being  "  lean,"  was  the  one 
foreordained  in  the  proverb  for  the  "long  race." 
The  young  messenger  lay  down  at  night  with 
his  despatches  within  his  bosom,  his  saddle 
under  his  head,  and  his  horse  near  him.  The 
bridle  was  fastened  around  his  person,  and  all 
his  property  so  secured  that  the  only  thing 
that  could  be  stolen  from  him  without  his 
being  awakened  was  his  hat  and  haversack,  — 
though  this  last  was  under  his  saddle-pillow. 
Nothing  else  was  loose. 

The  young  man  rose  early.  Alas  !  he  had 
been  bereaved  indeed.  Not  only  his  hat,  but 
his  haversack,  with  all  toilet  articles,  his  uncle's 
historic  spy-glass,  and  his  personal  notes  of  the 
campaign,  were  gone.  While  his  horse  chewed 
its  corn  he  found  a  soldier's  cap,  vastly  too 
small,  but  by  ripping  up  the  back  seam  he  was 
able  to  keep  it  on  his  head  and  save  himself 
from  sunstroke.  Mounting  his  horse,  he  set 
out  eastward  at  sunrise.  When  some  miles 
beyond  the  Federal  lines,  he  was  challenged  by 
horsemen  whom  he  found  to  be  of  the  ijth 
Pennsylvania  cavalry  on  outpost  duty  and 
just  in  from  a  foraging  trip.  They  hesitated 
to  release  him  even  after  examining  his  passes, 


Camp   Life  and  News-gathering       171 

but  "that  from  Butler  fetched  them."  Even 
then,  they  did  not  like  him  to  proceed,  assur 
ing  him  that  it  was  too  dangerous  for  anybody 
to  cross  such  unprotected  territory.  He  would 
be  "a  dead  man  inside  of  an  hour."  However, 
they  examined  his  horse's  shoes,  and  gave  him 
a  strip  of  raw  pork,  the  first  food  he  had  tasted 
for  many  an  hour.  Finally  they  bade  him 
good-by,  promising  him  that  he  was  going 
"  immediately  to  the  devil."  Some  miles  fur 
ther  on,  he  saw  near  him  two  riders.  Mu 
tually  suspicious  of  each  other,  the  distance 
was  shortened  between  the  two  parties  until 
the  character  of  each  was  made  known.  Then 
it  was  discovered  that  all  three  were  on  the 
same  errand,  the  solitary  horseman  for  Boston 
private  enterprise,  and  the  two  cavalrymen  in 
blue  for  General  Grant  to  the  Government, 
were  conveying  news. 

They  rode  pleasantly  together  for  a  few 
minutes,  but  when  Carleton  noticed  that  their 
horses  were  fat  and  too  well-fed  to  go  very 
fast,  he  bade  his  companions  good-by.  He 
put  spurs  to  his  horse.  Though  it  was  the 
hottest  day  of  the  year,  he  reached  Fredericks- 
burg  about  the  middle  of  the  forenoon,  thirsty 


1 72  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

and  hungry,  having  eaten  only  the  generous 
cavalryman's  slice  of  raw  pork  on  the  way. 
He  found  there  a  train  loading  with  the 
wounded  of  several  days'  battle.  He  at  once 
began  helping  to  carry  the  men  on  the  cars. 
Volunteering  as  a  nurse,  where  nurses  were 
most  needed,  though  at  first  refused  by  the 
surgeons,  he  got  on  board  the  train.  From 
the  Sanitary  Commission  officers,  he  received 
the  first  "  square  meal  "  eaten  for  many  days. 
At  Acquia  Creek,  he  took  the  steamboat,  and 
after  helping  to  transfer  the  wounded  from 
cars  to  boat,  he  remained  on  board,  sleeping 
on  a  railing  seat.  Next  morning  he  was  in 
Washington,  before  the  newspaper  bureaus 
were  open. 

He  sent  by  wire  a  brief  account  of  the  Wil 
derness  battles.  At  first  the  operator  was 
very  reluctant  to  transmit  the  message,  since 
he  was  sure  that  none  had  been  received  by 
the  Government,  and  he  feared  reprimand  or 
discharge  for  sending  false  reports.  Indeed, 
this  information  sent  by  Carleton  was  the  first 
news  which  either  President  Lincoln  or  Secre 
tary  Stanton  had  of  Grant's  latest  movements. 

From   the  telegraph  office,  young  Carleton 


Camp   Life  and   News-gathering       173 

went  to  the  Boston  Journal  Bureau,  on  i4th 
Street.  There  he  had  to  wait  some  time,  since 
Mr.  Coffin's  successor  in  Washington,  not 
expecting  any  tidings,  was  leisurely  in  appear 
ing.  By  the  first  mail  going  out,  however,  a 
"  great  wad  of  manuscript,"  put  in  envelopes 
as  letters,  was  posted.  Again  the  Journal  beat 
even  the  official  messengers  and  the  other 
newspapers  in  giving  the  truthful  reports  of  an 
eye-witness.  Thus,  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 
scored  another  triumph. 

How  to  get  back  to  the  army  was  now  a 
question  for  young  Carleton.  The  orders  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  were  peremptory  that  no 
one  should  leave  Washington  for  the  front. 
The  correspondents  who  were  there  might 
stay,  but  no  fresh  accessions  could  be  made  to 
the  ranks  of  the  news-gatherers.  How,  then, 
could  young  Carleton  pierce  through  the  hedge 
of  authority  ? 

But  the  man  diligent  in  business  shall  stand 
before  kings.  Young  Carleton,  securing  a 
commission  as  nurse  from  Surgeon-General 
Hammond,  went  down  to  the  riverside,  and, 
going  on  board  a  steamer  arriving  with 
wounded,  he  helped  to  unload  its  human 


174  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

freight.  When  the  last  man  had  been  carried 
over  the  gunwales,  young  Carleton  stayed  on 
board.  When  far  down  the  river,  on  the  re 
turning  boat,  he  ceased  being  something  like  a 
stowaway,  and  became  visible.  No  one  chal 
lenged  or  disturbed  him.  At  Acquia  Creek, 
he  found  that  General  Augur,  having  sent  all 
his  wounded  North,  was  just  abandoning  the 
communication.  Young  Carleton  then  went 
to  Belle  Plain,  and  thence  marched  three  days 
with  three  companies  of  the  Veteran  Invalid 
Corps,  and  rejoined  the  army  on  its  forced 
march,  when  Grant  moved  by  the  left  flank 
down  towards  Petersburg. 

Meanwhile,  the  pride  of  Mr.  Coffin,  the 
journalist,  and  the  conscience  of  Mr.  Coffin, 
the  man,  the  uncle,  and  the  Christian,  had 
been  at  civil  war.  He  was  berating  himself 
for  having  let  his  nephew  go  on  so  dangerous 
an  errand.  When  the  news  flew  round  the 
camp  that  "  young  Carleton's  back,"  Mr.  Cof 
fin  rushed  up  to  his  nephew,  wrung  his  hand, 
and  cried  out,  with  beaming  face,  "  Ed,  you're 
a  brick." 


CHAPTER   XV 


BY  this  time,  Mr.  Coffin  was  himself  nearly 
exhausted,  having  been  worn  down  by 
constant  service,  day  and  night,  in  one  of  the 
most  exhausting  campaigns  on  record.  Know 
ing  that  both  armies  would  have  to  throw  up 
entrenchments  and  recuperate,  he  came  home, 
according  to  custom,  to  rest  and  freshen  for 
renewed  exertion.  Leaving  immediately  after 
the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  that  is,  on  June 
yth,  he  was  back  again  in  Washington  on 
June  22d,  and  in  Petersburg,  June  26th.  The 
lines  of  offence  and  defence  were  now  twenty 
miles  long,  and  the  great  battle  of  Petersburg, 
which  was  to  last  many  months,  the  war  of 
shovel  and  spade,  had  begun.  Mr.  Coffin 
remained  with  the  army,  often  riding  to  City 
Point  and  along  the  whole  front  of  the  Union 
lines,  reading  the  news  of  the  sinking  of  the 
Alabama  by  the  Kearsarge,  and  the  call  of  the 

175 


176  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

President  for  a  half  million  of  men,  seeing 
many  of  the  minor  contests,  the  picket  firing, 
the  artillery  duels,  and  learning  of  the  splendid 
valor  of  the  black  troops. 

He  came  to  Washington  and  Baltimore, 
when  the  news  of  Early's  raid  up  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley  was  magnified  into  an  invasion  of 
Maryland  by  General  Lee,  with  sixty  thou 
sand  men  behind  them.  Carleton,  however, 
was  not  one  to  catch  the  disease  of  fear  through 
infectious  excitement.  Finding  Grant,  the 
commander-in-chief  of  all  the  armies  in  the 
field,,  walking  alone,  quietly  and  unostenta 
tiously,  with  his  thumbs  in  the  armholes  of  his 
vest,  and  smoking  a  cigar,  neither  excited  nor 
disturbed,  Carleton  felt  sure  that  the  raid  had 
been  anticipated  and  was  well  provided  for. 
Both  then,  as  well  as  on  July  i8th,  when  he 
had  to  argue  with  friends  who  wore  metaphor 
ically  blue  glasses,  he  wrote  cheerfully  and 
convincingly  of  his  calm,  deliberate  judgment, 
that  the  prospects  of  crushing  the  rebellion 
were  never  so  bright  as  at  that  moment.  He 
concluded  his  letter  thus,  "  Give  Grant  the 
troops  he  needs  now,  and  this  gigantic  struggle 
will  speedily  come  to  an  end." 


"The  Old  Flag  Waves  over  Sumter "    177 

While  Lee,  disappointed  in  the  results  of 
Early's  menace  of  Washington,  was  summon 
ing  all  his  resources  to  resist  the  long  siege, 
and  while  Grant  was  awaiting  his  reinforce 
ments  and  preparing  the  cordon,  which,  like  a 
perfect  machine,  should  at  the  right  moment  be 
set  in  motion  to  grind  in  pieces  the  armies  of 
rebellion,  Carleton  was  chosen  by  the  people 
of  Boston  to  accompany  their  gift  of  food 
which  they  wished  to  send  to  Savannah,  to  re 
lieve  the  needy.  Between  Tuesday  and  Thurs 
day  of  one  week,  thirty  thousand  dollars  were 
contributed.  The  steamer  Greyhound,  a  cap 
tured  blockade-runner,  was  chartered.  Taking 
in  her  hold  one-half  of  the  provisions,  she  left 
Boston  Harbor  at  3  o'clock  on  Saturday  after 
noon,  January  23,  1865.  With  the  committee 
of  relief,  Carleton  arrived  in  Savannah  in  time 
to  ride  out  and  meet  the  army  of  Sherman. 
After  attending  meetings  of  the  citizens,  seeing 
to  the  distribution  of  supplies,  and  writing  a 
number  of  letters,  he  now  scanned  all  horizons, 
feeling  rather  than  seeing  the  signs  of  supreme 
activity.  Whither  should  he  go  ? 

Sherman's  army  was  about  to  move  north 
to  crush  Johnston,  and  then  join  Grant  in  de- 


178  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

molishing  Lee's  host.  Mr.  Coffin  could  easily 
have  accompanied  this  marvellous  modern 
Anabasis,  which,  however,  instead  of  retreat 
meant  victory.  He  had  an  especially  warm 
invitation  from  Major-General  A.  S.  Williams, 
commander  of  the  2Oth  Corps,  to  be  a  guest 
at  his  headquarters.  There  were  many  argu 
ments  to  tempt  him  to  proceed  with  Sherman's 
army.  Nevertheless,  from  the  war  correspond 
ent's  point  of  view,  it  seemed  wiser  not  to  go 
overland,  but  to  choose  the  more  unstable 
element,  water.  For  nearly  a  month,  perhaps 
more,  the  army  would  have  no  communication 
with  any  telegraph  office,  and  for  long  intervals 
none  with  the  seacoast. 

Carleton  knew  that  after  Gilmore's  "  swamp 
angel "  and  investing  forces  had  done  their 
work,  Charleston  must  soon  be  empty.  He 
longed  to  see  the  old  flag  wave  once  more 
over  Sumter.  So,  bidding  farewell  to  Sher 
man's  army,  he  took  the  steamer  Fulton  at 
Port  Royal,  which  was  to  stop  on  her  way  to 
New  York  at  the  blockading  fleet  off  Charles 
ton.  Happy  choice  !  He  arrived  in  the  nick 
of  time,  just  as  the  stars  and  stripes  were  being 
hoisted  over  Sumter.  It  was  on  February 


"The  Old  Flag  Waves  over  Sumter "    179 

1 8th,  at  2  P.M.,  that  the  Arago  steamed  into 
Charleston  Bay,  where  he  had  before  seen  the 
heaviest  artillery  duel  then  known  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  world,  and  the  abandonment  of  the 
attack  by  the  floating  fortresses.  Now  a  new 
glory  rose  above  the  fort,  while  in  the  distance 
rolled  black  clouds  of  smoke,  from  the  con 
flagration  of  the  city.  He  penned  this  tele 
gram  to  the  Boston  "Journal : 

"  The  old  flag  waves  over  Sumter,  Moultrie, 
and  the  city  of  Charleston. 

"  I  can  see  its  crimson  stripes  and  fadeless 
stars  waving  in  the  warm  sunlight  of  this  glo 
rious  day. 

"  Thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the 
victory." 

Carleton  had  but  a  few  minutes  to  write  out 
his  story,  for  the  steamer  Fulton  was  all  ready 
to  move  North.  How  to  get  the  glorious 
news  home,  and  be  first  torch-bearer  in  the 
race  that  would  flash  joy  over  all  the  North, 
was  now  Carleton's  strenuous  thought.  As 
matter  of  fact,  this  time  again,  as  on  several 
occasions  before,  he  beat  the  Government  and 
its  official  despatch-bearers,  and  all  his  fellow 
correspondents. 


180  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

How  did  he  do  it  ? 

While  other  knights  of  the  pen  confided 
their  missives  to  the  purser  of  the  despatch 
steamer,  Arago^  Carleton  put  his  in  the  hands 
of  a  passing  stranger,  who  was  going  North. 
Explaining  to  him  the  supreme  importance  of 
rapidity  in  delivery  of  such  important  news,  he 
instructed  him  as  follows  : 

"  When  your  steamer  comes  close  to  the 
wharf  in  New  York,  it  will  very  probably 
touch  and  then  rebound  before  she  is  fast  to 
her  moorings.  Do  you  stand  ready  on  the 
gunwale,  and  when  the  sides  of  the  vessel  first 
touch  the  dock,  do  not  wait  for  the  rebound ; 
but  jump  ashore,  and  run  as  for  your  life  to 
the  telegraph  office,  send  the  telegram,  and 
then  drop  this  letter  in  the  post-office." 

Carleton's  friend  did  as  he  was  told.  He 
watched  his  opportunity.  In  spite  of  efforts 
to  hold  him  back,  he  was  on  terra  firma  many 
minutes  before  even  the  Government  messen 
ger  left  the  boat;  while,  unfortunately  for  the 
New  York  newspapers,  the  purser  kept  the  va 
rious  correspondents'  despatches  in  his  pocket 
until  his  own  affairs  had  been  attended  to.  It 
was  about  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  when 


"The  Old  Flag  Waves  over  Sumter "    181 

Carleton's  messenger  faced  the  telegraph  oper 
ators.  Then,  as  Carleton  told  the  story  in 
1896,  "they  at  first  refused  to  take  the  story, 
as  they  did  not  believe  its  truth,  and  said  it 
would  affect  the  price  of  gold.  In  those  days, 
there  was  a  censorship  of  the  telegraph,  and 
nothing  was  allowed  to  be  sent  which  might 
affect  the  price  of  gold. 

"  But  finally  they  sent  the  story,  and  it  was 
bulletined  in  Boston  and  created  a  great  sensa 
tion.  It  was  wired  back  to  New  York  and 
pronounced  a  canard  by  the  papers  there,  since 
the  steamer  from  Charleston  was  in  and  they 
had  no  news  from  her. 

"  They  were  set  right,  though,  when  about 
noon  the  purser,  having  finished  his  own  work, 
delivered  the  stories  entrusted  to  him." 

The  despatch,  which  was  received  in  the 
Journal  office  soon  after  9  o'clock  A.  M.,  was 
issued  as  an  extra,  containing  about  sixty-five 
lines,  giving  the  outline  of  the  great  series  of 
events.  This  telegram  was  the  first  intimation 
that  President  Lincoln  and  the  Cabinet  at 
Washington  received  of  the  glorious  news. 
Being  signed  "Carleton,"  its  truth  was  assured. 

The  next  day,  in  the  city  "where  Secession 


i  82  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

had  its  birth,"  Carleton  walked  amid  the 
burning  houses  and  the  streets  deserted  of  its 
citizens,  saw  the  entrance  of  the  black  troops, 
and  went  into  the  empty  slave-market,  secur 
ing  its  dingy  flag  —  the  advertisement  of  sale 
of  human  bodies  —  as  a  relic.  During  several 
days  he  wrote  letters,  in  which  the  notes  of 
gratitude  and  exultation,  mingled  with  pity 
and  sympathy  with  the  suffering,  and  full  of 
scarcely  restrainable  joy  in  view  of  the  speedy 
termination  of  the  war,  are  discernible. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

WITH   LINCOLN   IN   RICHMOND. 

WHITHER  now  should  Carleton  go? 
There  were  but  few  fields  to  conquer, 
for  the  slaveholders'  rebellion  was  swiftly 
nearing  its  end,  and  Carleton  felt  his  work 
with  armies  and  amid  war  would  soon  and 
happily  be  over.  He  knew  it  was  now  time 
for  Grant  to  deliver  his  blows,  and  make  the 
anvil  at  Petersburg  ring.  Eager  to  be  in  at 
the  death  of  treason,  he  hastened  home,  short 
ened  his  stay  with  wife  and  friends,  and  hur 
ried  on  to  City  Point.  As  usual,  he  was 
present  in  the  nick  of  time.  He  was  able  to 
write  his  first  letter  from  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  descriptive  of  the  attack  on  Fort 
Steadman,  March  25th.  On  the  26th  he  saw 
again  the  sparkling-eyed  Sheridan.  Once  more 
he  began  to  use  his  whip  of  scorpions  upon  the 
editors  and  people  who  were  bestowing  all 
praises  upon  the  Army  of  the  West,  with  only 

183 


184  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

criticism  or  niggardly  commendation  for  the 
Armies  of  the  Potomac  and  the  James,  with 
many  a  sneer  and  odious  comparison.  He 
witnessed  the  tremendous  attack  of  the  rebel 
host  upon  the  Ninth  Corps,  hearing  first  the 
signal  gun,  next  the  rebel  yell,  then  the  rat 
tling  fire  of  musketry  deepening  into  volleys, 
and  finally  the  roar  of  the  cannonade.  Carle- 
ton,  within  three  minutes  after  the  firing  of  the 
first  gun,  took  position  with  his  glass  and  note 
book,  upon  a  hill.  One  hundred  guns  and 
mortars  were  in  full  play,  surpassing  in  beauty 
and  grandeur  all  other  night  scenes  ever  wit 
nessed  by  him.  In  some  moments  he  could 
count  thirty  shells  at  once  in  the  air,  which 
was  filled  with  fiery  arcs  crossing  each  other 
at  all  angles.  Between  the  flaming  bases,  at  the 
muzzle  and  the  explosion,  making  two  ends  of 
an  arch,  there  were  thousands  of  muskets 
flashing  over  the  entrenchments.  Yet,  despite 
the  awful  noise  and  the  spectacle  so  magnifi 
cent  to  the  eye,  there  were  few  men  hurt 
within  the  Union  lines. 

After  forty  hours  of  rain,  the  wind  blew 
from  the  northwest,  and  the  mud  rapidly  dis 
appeared.  Then  Carleton  began  to  look  out 


With   Lincoln  in  Richmond  185 

for  the  great  event,  in  which  such  giants  as 
Lee  and  Johnston  on  one  hand,  and  Grant, 
Sherman,  Sheridan,  Thomas,  and  Hancock  on 
the  other,  were  to  finish  the  game  of  military 
mathematics  which  had  been  progressing  dur 
ing  four  years.  Carleton  wrote,  March  31, 
1865,  "How  inspiring  to  watch  the  close  of 
such  a  game."  He  expected  a  great  battle. 
"  The  last  flicker  of  a  candle  is  sometimes  its 
brightest  flame." 

He  was  not  disappointed.  On  mid-after 
noon  of  April  ist,  Carleton  was  at  Sheridan's 
headquarters  witnessing  the  battle  of  Five 
Forks,  and  the  awful  bombardment  of  Satur 
day  night.  Then  went  out  Grant's  order  to 
"  attack  along  the  whole  line."  Now  began 
the  bayonet  war.  At  4  o'clock  on  that  event 
ful  Sunday,  like  a  great  tidal  wave,  the  Union 
Army  rolled  over  the  rebel  entrenchments. 
This  is  the  way  Carleton  describes  it  in  Put 
nam  s  Magazine  : 

"  Lee  attempted  to  retrieve  the  disaster  on 
Saturday  by  depleting  his  left  and  centre,  to 
reinforce  his  right.  Then  came  the  order 
from  Grant,  c  Attack  vigorously  all  along  the 
line.'  How  splendidly  it  was  executed  !  The 


1 86  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Ninth,  the  Sixth,  the  Second,  the  Twenty- 
fourth  Corps,  all  went  tumbling  in  upon  the 
enemy's  works,  like  breakers  upon  the  beach, 
tearing  away  chevaux-de-frise,  rushing  into  the 
ditches,  sweeping  over  the  embankments,  and 
dashing  through  the  embrasures  of  the  forts. 
In  an  hour  the  C.  S.  A.,  —  the  Confederate 
Slave  Argosy i  —  the  Ship  of  State  launched  but 
four  years  ago,  which  went  proudly  sailing, 
with  the  death's-head  and  cross-bones  at  her 
truck,  on  a  cruise  against  Civilization  and 
Christianity,  hailed  as  a  rightful  belligerent, 
furnished  with  guns,  ammunition,  provisions, 
and  all  needful  supplies,  by  England  and 
France,  was  thrown  a  helpless  wreck  upon  the 
shores  of  time." 

On  April  id,  he  wrote  from  Petersburg 
Heights  telling  of  the  movements  of  Sheri 
dan's  cavalry  and  the  Ninth,  Second,  and 
Twenty-fourth  Corps. 

On  the  jd,  he  was  in  Richmond,  writing, 
"  There  is  no  longer  a  Confederacy." 

He  had  been  awakened  by  the  roar  of  the 
Confederate  blowing  up  of  ironclads  in  the 
James  River.  A  few  minutes  later  he  was  in 
the  Petersburg  entrenchments.  He  rode  soli- 


With  Lincoln  in   Richmond  187 

tary  and  lone  from  City  Point  to  Richmond, 
entering  the  city  by  the  Newmarket  road,  and 
overtaking  a  division  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Corps. 
Dismounting  at  the  Spottswood  House,  he 
registered  his  name  on  the  hotel  book,  so 
thickly  written  with  the  names  of  Confederate 
generals,  as  the  first  guest  from  a  "  foreign 
country,"  the  United  States.  The  clerk  bade 
him  choose  any  room,  and  even  the  whole 
house,  adding  that  he  would  probably  be 
burned  out  in  a  few  minutes.  Parts  of  the 
city  had  already  become  a  sea  of  flame,  but 
Richmond  was  saved,  and  the  fire  put  out  by 
Union  troops.  Military  order  soon  reigned, 
and  plundering  was  stopped.  He  met  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  and  helped  to  escort  him 
through  the  streets  lined  with  the  black  peo 
ple  whom  he  had  set  free.  Later,  Carleton 
saw  and  talked  with  Generals  Weitzel  and 
Devens  in  the  capitol,  shaking  hands  also  with 
Admiral  Farragut.  From  the  top  of  the  capi 
tol  building,  he  reflected  on  the  fall  of  Seces 
sion.  He  saw  Libby  Prison  inside  and  out, 
as  well  as  the  old  slave-mart,  holding  the  key 
of  the  slave-pen  in  his  hand.  He  has  told 
the  story  of  his  Richmond  experiences  in 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


lectures,  magazine  articles,  and  in  his  book, 
"  Freedom  Triumphant."  His  verbal  de 
scriptions  enabled  Thomas  Nast  to  paint  his 
famous  picture  of  Lincoln  in  Richmond. 

Carleton's  last  letter,  completing  his  war 
correspondence,  is  dated  April  i2th,  1865. 
It  depicts  the  scene  of  the  surrender,  thus 
completing  a  series  of  about  four  hundred 
epistles,  not  counting  the  ten  or  a  dozen  lost 
in  transmission.  In  these  he  not  only  wrote 
history  and  furnished  material  for  it,  but  he 
kept  in  cheer  the  heart  of  the  nation. 

Finally  the  great  rebellion  was  crushed  by 
the  navy  and  army.  Foote,  Farragut,  Dupont, 
and  Porter,  with  their  men  on  blockade  and 
battle-deck  duty,  made  possible  the  victories 
of  Grant,  Thomas,  Sheridan,  and  Sherman. 
Carleton  as  witness  and  historian  on  the  ships, 
in  water  fresh  and  salt,  as  well  as  in  the  camps 
and  field,  appreciated  both  arms  of  the  service. 
His  letters  were  read  by  thousands  far  beyond 
the  Eastern  States,  and  often  his  telegrams 
were  the  only  voice  crying  out  of  the  wilder 
ness  of  suspense,  and  first  heard  at  Washing 
ton  and  throughout  the  country,  proclaiming 
victory. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

THE    GLORIES    OF    EUROPE. 

AFTER  four  years  of  strenuous  activity 
of  body  and  brain,  it  was  not  easy  for 
Carleton  to  settle  down  at  once  to  common 
place  routine.  Having  exerted  every  nerve 
and  feeling  in  so  glorious  a  cause  as  our  na 
tion's  salvation,  every  other  cause  and  question 
seemed  trivial  in  comparison.  Succeeding  such 
a  series  of  excitements,  it  was  difficult  to  lessen 
the  momentum  of  mind  and  nerve  in  order  to 
live,  just  like  other  plain  people,  quietly  at 
home.  One  could  not  be  drinking  strong 
coffee  all  the  time,  nor  could  battle  shocks 
come  any  longer  every  few  weeks.  The  sud 
den  collapse  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the  end 
ing  of  the  war,  was  like  clapping  the  air-brakes 
instantaneously  upon  the  Empire  State  Express 
while  at  full  speed.  While  the  air  pressure 
might  stop  the  wheels,  there  was  danger  of 
throwing  the  cars  off  their  trucks. 


190  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

It  took  Carleton  many  months,  and  then 
only  after  strong  exertion  of  the  will,  careful 
study  of  his  diet  and  physical  habits,  to  get 
down  to  the  ordinary  jog-trot  of  life  and  enjoy 
the  commonplace.  He  occupied  himself  dur 
ing  the  latter  part  of  1865  in  completing  his 
first  book,  which  he  entitled  "  My  Days  and 
Nights  upon  the  Battle  Field."  This  was 
meant  to  be  one  in  a  series  of  three  volumes. 
He  had  written  most  of  this,  his  first  book,  in 
camp  and  on  the  field.  In  form,  it  was  an 
illustrated  duodecimo  of  312  pages,  and  was 
published  by  Ticknor  and  Fields,  and  later 
republished  by  Estes  and  Lauriat. 

It  carries  the  story  of  the  war,  and  of  Carle- 
ton's  personal  participation  in  it  in  the  Potomac 
and  Mississippi  River  regions,  down  to  the  fall 
of  Memphis  in  the  summer  of  1862. 

After  this,  followed  another  volume,  entitled 
"  Four  Years  of  Fighting,"  full  of  personal 
observation  in  the  army  and  navy,  from  the 
first  battle  of  Bull  Run  to  the  fall  of  Rich 
mond.  This  was  a  more  ambitious  work,  of 
five  hundred  and  fifty-eight,  with  an  introduc 
tion  of  fifteen,  pages.  It  contained  a  portrait 
and  figure  of  the  war  correspondent,  with 


The  Glories  of  Europe  191 

pencil  and  note-book  in  hand.  Published  by 
Ticknor  and  Fields,  it  was  reissued  in  1882, 
by  Estes  and  Lauriat,  under  the  title  of  "  Boys 
of  '6 1."  Carleton  completed  a  careful  revision 
of  this  work  about  a  fortnight  before  his  golden 
wedding,  for  another  edition  which  appeared 
posthumously  in  October,  1896. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Coffin  had  reentered  the 
work  of  journalism  in  Boston.  This,  with  his 
books  and  public  engagements,  as  a  lecturer 
and  platform  speaker,  occupied  him  fully.  In 
the  summer  of  1866  the  shadows  of  coming 
events  in  Europe  began  to  loom  above  the 
horizon  of  the  future.  The  great  Reform 
movement  in  England  was  in  progress.  The 
triumph  of  the  American  war  for  internal  free 
dom,  the  vindication  of  Union  against  the 
pretensions  of  State  sovereignty,  the  release 
of  four  million  slaves,  the  implied  honor  put 
upon  work,  as  against  those  who  despised 
workmen  as  "  mudsills,"  had  had  a  powerful 
reaction  upon  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
These  now  clamored  for  the  rights  of  man, 
as  against  privileged  men.  British  liberty  was 
once  more  "  to  broaden  down  from  precedent 
to  precedent."  In  France,  the  World's  Expo- 


192  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

sition  was  being  held.  Prussia  and  Austria 
had  rushed  to  arms. 

The  evolution  of  a  modern  German  empire 
had  begun.  Austria  and  Hungary  were  being 
drawn  together.  Should  Prussia  humble  her 
Austrian  foe,  then  Italy  would  throw  off  the 
yoke,  and  the  Italians,  once  more  united  as  a 
nation,  would  see  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Pope  vanish.  Victor  Emmanuel's  troops 
would  enter  Venice  and  perhaps  even  the 
Eternal  City. 

To  tell  the  story  of  storm  and  calm,  of  war 
and  peace,  Carleton  was  again  summoned  by 
the  proprietors  of  the  Boston  Journal^  and  at 
a  salary  double  that  received  during  the  war. 
This  time  his  wife  accompanied  him,  to  aid 
him  in  his  work  and  to  share  his  pleasure. 
On  one  of  the  hottest  days  of  the  summer, 
they  sailed  on  the  Cunard  steamer  Persia^ 
from  New  York.  This  was  to  be  Carleton's 
first  introduction  to  a  foreign  land.  The  chief 
topic  of  conversation  during  the  voyage  was 
the  Austro-Prussian  War,  which,  it  was  gener 
ally  believed,  would  involve  all  Europe.  The 
storm-cloud  seemed  to  be  vast  and  appalling. 

They  arrived   in   Liverpool,  the   cloud  had 


The  Glories  of  Europe  193 

burst  and  disappeared,  and  the  sky  was  blue 
again.  The  battle  of  Sadowa  had  been  fought. 
Prussian  valor  and  discipline  in  handling  the 
needle-gun  had  won  on  the  field.  Bismarck 
and  diplomacy  were  soon  to  settle  terms  of 
peace,  and  change  the  map  of  Europe. 

Carleton  hastened  on  to  London  to  hear  the 
debate  in  Parliament  on  the  extension  of  the 
suffrage,  to  see  the  uprising  of  the  people,  and 
to  notice  how  profoundly  the  great  struggle  in 
America  and  its  results  had  affected  the  Eng 
lish  people.  Great  Britain's  millions  were  de 
manding  cheaper  government,  without  so  many 
costly  figureheads,  both  temporal  and  spirit 
ual,  and  manhood  suffrage.  The  long  period 
of  nearly  constant  war  from  1688  to  1830  had 
passed.  In  area  of  peace,  men  were  thinking 
of,  and  discussing  openly,  the  relation  of  the 
middle  classes  and  the  laboring  men  to  the 
nobility  and  landed  estates.  Agitated  crowds 
thronged  the  streets,  singing  "  John  Brown's 
Soul  is  Marching  on." 

Mr.  Gladstone's  bill  was  defeated.  Earl 
Russell  was  swept  out  of  office,  and  Disraeli 
was  made  chancellor.  .  It  was  a  field-day  in 
the  House  of  Commons  when  Carleton  heard 


194  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

Gladstone,  Bright,  Lowe,  and  the  Conservative 
and  Liberal  leaders.  These  were  the  days 
when  such  men  as  Governor  Eyre,  after  in 
carnating  the  most  brutish  principle  of  that 
worse  England,  which  every  American  and 
friend  of  humanity  hates,  could  be  defended, 
lauded,  and  glorified.  Indeed,  Eyre's  bloody 
policy  in  Jamaica  was  approved  of  by  such 
men  as  John  Ruskin,  Charles  Kingsley,  and 
other  literary  men,  to  the  surprise  and  pain  of 
Americans  who  had  read  their  books.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  men  of  science  and  thinking 
people  in  the  middle  and  laboring  classes 
condemned  the  red-handed  apostle  of  British 
brutishness.  All  through  this,  his  first  jour 
ney  in  Great  Britain,  as  in  other  countries 
years  afterward,  Carleton  clearly  distinguished 
between  the  Great  Britain  which  we  love,  and 
the  Great  Britain  which  we  do  not  love,  —  the 
one  standing  for  righteousness,  freedom,  and 
progress ;  the  other  allied  with  cruelty,  injus 
tice,  and  bigotry. 

After  studying  British  finance,  political  cor 
ruption,  the  army,  and  the  system  of  purchas 
ing  commissions  then  in  vogue,  and  visiting 
the  homes  of  the  Pilgrims  in  Lincolnshire, 


The  Glories  of  Europe  195 

and  the  county  fairs,  the  land  of  Burns,  and 
the  manufactures  of  Scotland,  Carleton  turned 
his  face  towards  Paris.  Before  leaving  the 
home  land  of  his  fathers,  he  dined  and  spent 
an  afternoon  with  the  great  commoner,  John 
Bright.  Mrs.  Coffin  accompanied  him  and 
enjoyed  Mrs.  Bright,  who  was  as  modest, 
unassuming,  kind,  and  genial  as  her  husband. 
John  Bright  listened  with  intense  interest  and 
profound  emotion  to  Carleton's  personal  remi 
niscences  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  of  his  entrance 
into  Richmond.  Before  leaving  for  France, 
on  the  5th  of  September,  Carleton  wrote : 

"  The  thunder  of  Gettysburg  is  shaking  the 
thrones  of  Europe.  English  workmen  give 
cheers  for  the  United  States.  The  people  of 
Germany  demand  unity.  Louis  Napoleon,  to 
whom  Maximilian  had  said,  c  Mexico  and  the 
Confederacy  are  two  cherries  on  one  stalk,' 
was  already  sending  steamers  to  Vera  Cruz,  to 
bring  back  his  homesick  soldiers.  Monarchy 
will  then  be  at  an  end  in  North  America." 
Maximilian's  wife  was  in  France,  expecting 
soon  to  see  her  husband.  In  a  few  weeks,  the 
corpse  of  the  bandit-emperor,  sustained  by 
French  bayonets  and  shot  by  Mexican  repub- 


196  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

licans,  and  an  insane  widow  startled  Carleton, 
as  it  startled  the  world. 

The  Journal  correspondent  passed  over  to 
Napoleon's  realm,  spending  a  few  weeks  in 
Paris,  Dijon,  and  other  French  cities.  In 
Switzerland  he  enjoyed  mightily  the  home  of 
Calvin  and  its  eloquent  memories,  Mont 
Blanc  and  its  associated  splendors,  the  moun 
tains,  the  glaciers,  the  passes,  and  valleys,  and, 
above  all,  his  study  of  the  politics  of  "  The 
freest  people  of  Europe. "  How  truly  pro 
phetic  was  Carleton,  when  he  wrote,  "  This 
republic,  instead  of  being  wiped  off  from  the 
map,  .  .  .  will  more  likely  become  a  teacher 
to  Europe,"  —  a  truth  never  so  large  as  now. 
He  rode  over  the  Splugen  pass,  and  saw  Milan 
and  Verona.  From  the  city  of  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  he  took  a  carnage  in  order  to  visit  and 
study,  with  the  eye  of  an  experienced  engineer 
and  veteran,  the  details  of  the  battle  of  Cus- 
tozza,  where,  on  June  24th,  1866,  the  Arch 
duke  Albert  gained  the  victory  over  the 
Italian  La  Marmora. 

He  reached  Venice  October  ijth.  In  the 
old  city  proudly  called  the  Queen  of  the  Adri 
atic,  and  for  centuries  a  republic,  until  ground 


The   Glories   of  Europe  197 

under  the  heel  of  Austrian  despotism,  Carleton 
arrived  in  time  to  see  the  people  almost  insane 
with  joy.  The  Austrian  garrison  was  march 
ing  out  and  the  Italian  troops  were  moving  in. 
The  red  caps  and  shirts  of  the  Garibaldians 
brightened  the  throng  in  the  streets,  and  the 
old  stones  of  Venice,  bathed  in  salt  water  at 
their  bases,  were  deluged  with  bunting,  flags, 
and  rainbow  colors.  When  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  entered,  the  scenes  of  joy  and 
gladness,  the  sounds  of  music,  the  gliding 
gondolas,  the  illuminated  marble  palaces  and 
humble  homes,  the  worshipping  hosts  of  peo 
ple  in  the  churches,  and  the  singing  bands  in 
the  streets,  taxed  to  the  utmost  even  Carleton's 
descriptive  powers.  The  burden  of  joy  every 
where  was  "  Italy  is  one  from  the  Alps  to  the 
Adriatic,  and  Venice  is  free." 

Turning  his  attention  to  Rome,  where 
French  bayonets  were  still  supporting  the 
Pope's  temporal  throne,  Carleton  discussed  a 
question  of  world-wide  interest,  —  the  impend 
ing  loss  of  papal  power  and  its  probable  re 
sults.  Within  a  fortnight  after  his  letter  on 
this  subject,  the  last  echoes  of  the  French 
drum-beat  and  bugle-blast  had  died  away. 


198  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

The  red  trousers  of  the  Emperor's  servants 
were  numbered  among  Rome's  mighty  list  of 
things  vanished.  In  the  Eternal  City  itself, 
Carleton  attended  mass  at  St.  Peter's,  and  then 
reread  and  retold  the  story  of  both  the  Roman 
and  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Some  of  his 
happiest  days  were  passed  in  the  studios  of 
American  artists  and  sculptors.  There  he 
saw,  in  their  beginning  of  outlines  and  color, 
on  canvas  or  in  clay,  some  of  the  triumphs  of 
art  which  now  adorn  American  homes  and 
cities.  Fascinated  as  he  was  in  Pompeii  and 
in  Rome  with  the  relics  and  revelations  of  an 
cient  life,  he  was  even  more  thrilled  by  the 
rapid  strokes  of  destiny  in  the  modern  world. 
The  separation  of  church  and  state  was  being 
accomplished  while  Italy  was  waking  to  new 
life.  The  Anabaptists  were  avenged  and 
justified. 

About  the  middle  of  February,  Carleton 
was  again  in  Paris,  seeing  the  Exposition  and 
the  Emperor  of  the  French  and  his  family. 
Then  crossing  to  England,  he  heard  a  great 
debate  over  the  Reform  measures,  in  which 
Disraeli,  Lowe,  Bright,  and  Gladstone  spoke. 
The  results  were  the  humiliation  of  Disraeli, 


The  Glories  of  Europe  199 

and  the  break-up  of  the  British  ministry.  Re- 
crossing  the  channel  to  Paris,  he  spent  eight 
weeks  studying  the  Exposition  and  the  coun 
try,  writing  many  letters  to  the  Journal. 
After  examination  of  the  great  fortresses  in 
the  Duchy  of  Luxembourg,  he  went  into 
Germany,  tarrying  at  Heidelberg,  Nuremberg, 
Munich,  and  Vienna.  He  then  passed  down 
"  the  beautiful  blue  Danube  "  to  Buda-Pesth, 
where,  having  been  given  letters  and  com 
mendations  from  J.  L.  Motley,  the  historian 
of  the  Netherlands  and  our  minister  at  Vienna, 
he  saw  the  glittering  pageant  which  united  the 
crowns  of  Austria  and  Hungary.  This  was 
performed  in  the  parish  church  in  Buda,  an 
edifice  built  over  six  hundred  years  ago.  It 
had  been  captured  by  the  Turks  and  made 
into  a  mosque,  where  the  muezzin  supplanted 
the  priest  in  calls  of  prayer.  After  the  great 
victory  won  by  John  Sobieski,  cross  and  altar 
were  restored.  Here,  amid  all  the  glittering 
and  bewildering  splendor  of  tapestry,  banners, 
dynastic  colors,  national  flags,  jewels,  and  in 
numerable  heraldic  devices,  "  the  iron  crown 
of  Charlemagne,"  granted  by  Pope  Sylvester 
II.  in  the  year  1000,  and  called  "  the  holy  and 


loo  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

apostolic  crown,"  was  placed  by  Count  An- 
drassy  upon  the  head  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph.  The  ruler  of  Austria  practically  ac 
knowledged  the  righteousness  of  the  revolu 
tion  of  1 849,  and  his  own  mistake,  when  he 
accepted  the  crown  from  the  once  rebel  militia- 
leader  and  then  exiled  Andrassy,  having  already 
given  to  the  Hungarians  the  popular  rights 
which  they  clamored  for.  .Most  gracious  act 
of  all,  Francis  Joseph  contributed,  with  the 
Empress  (whom  Mrs.  Coffin  thought  the 
handsomest  woman  in  Europe),  100,000  ducats 
($200,000)  to  the  widows  and  children  of 
those  who  were  killed  in  1849,  while  fighting 
against  the  empire.  At  this  writing,  Decem 
ber,  1896,  we  read  of  the  unveiling,  at  Kor- 
morn,  of  a  monument  to  Klapka,  the  insurgent 
general  of  1849. 

In  Berlin,  Carleton  saw  a  magnificent  spec 
tacle, —  the  review  of  the  Prussian  army  in 
welcome  to  the  Czar.  He  studied  the  battle 
fields  of  Leipsig  and  Lutzen,  and  the  ever 
continuing  gamblers'  war  at  Weisbaden.  Then 
sailing  down  the  Rhine,  he  revisited  Paris  to 
see  the  distribution  of  prizes  at  the  Exposition, 
the  arrav  of  Mohammedan  and  Christian 


The  Glories  of  Europe  201 

princes,  and  the  grand  review  of  the  French 
troops  in  honor  of  the  Sultan.  In  England 
once  more,  he  looked  upon  the  great  naval 
review  of  the  British  fleets  of  iron  and  wood. 
He  studied  the  ritualistic  movement.  He 
attended  the  meeting  of  anti-ritualists  at  Salis 
bury,  where,  midway  between  matchless  spire 
and  preancient  Cromlech,  one  can  meditate  on 
the  evolution  of  religion.  He  was  at  the  Meth 
odist  Conference  of  Great  Britain  in  the  city  of 
Bristol,  whence  sailed  the  Cabots  for  the  dis 
covery  of  America,  now  four  centuries  ago. 
He  read  the  modern  lamentations  of  Thomas 
Carlyle,  who,  in  his  article,  "  Shooting  the 
Niagara  and  After,"  foretold  the  death  of  good 
government  and  religion  in  the  triumph  of 
democracy. 

At  the  British  Scientific  Association's  gather 
ing  in  Dundee,  he  heard  Murchison,  Baker, 
Lyell,  Thomson,  Tyndall,  Lubbock,  Ran- 
kine,  Fairbairn,  and  young  Professor  Her- 
schell.  He  was  at  the  Social  Science  Congress 
held  in  Belfast,  meeting  Lord  Dufferin,  Dr. 
James  McCosh,  Goldwin  Smith,  and  others. 
Two  months  more  were  given  to  study  and 
observation  in  the  countries  Ireland,  England 


1O2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

and  Scotland,  Holland  and  Belgium.  Of 
his  frequent  letters  to  the  Journal  a  score  or 
so  were  written  especially  to  and  for  young 
people,  though  all  of  them  interested  every 
class  of  readers.  He  kept  a  keen  watch  upon 
movements  in  Italy  and  in  Spain,  where  the 
Carlists'  uprising  had  begun. 

In  this,  manner,  nearly  sixteen  months 
slipped  away  in  parts  of  Europe,  and  amid 
scenes  so  remote  as  to  require  hasty  journeys 
and  much  travelling.  Carleton  received  further 
directions  to  continue  his  journey  around  the 
world.  He  was  to  visit  the  Holy  Land, 
Egypt,  India,  China,  and  Japan,  to  cross  the 
Pacific,  and  to  traverse  the  United  States  as 
far  as  possible  on  the  Pacific  railway,  then  in 
course  of  construction.  This  was  indeed 
"  A  New  Voyage  Around  the  World,"  not 
exactly  in  the  sense  of  Defoe ;  but  was,  as 
Carleton  called  it  in  the  book  describing  it, 
which  he  afterwards  wrote,  "  Our  New  Way 
Around  the  World."  No  one  before  his 
time,  so  far  as  known,  had  gone  around  the 
globe,  starting  eastward  from  America,  crossing 
continents,  and  using  steam  as  the  motor  of 
transportation  on  land  and  water  all  the  way. 


The  Glories  of  Europe  203 

Making  choice  of  three  routes  to  the  Orient, 
Carleton  left  Paris  December  9th,  1867,  for 
Marseilles.  He  found  much  of  the  country 
thitherward  nearly  as  forbidding  as  the  hardest 
regions  of  New  Hampshire.  The  climate  was 
indeed  easier  than  in  the  Granite  State,  but 
from  November  to  March  the  people  suffered 
more  from  cold  than  the  Yankees.  They 
lived  in  stone  houses  and  fuel  was  dear.  At 
Marseilles  the  vessels  were  packed  so  closely 
in  docks,  that  the  masts  and  spars  reminded 
him  of  the  slopes  of  the  White  Mountains 
after  fire  had  swept  the  foliage  away.  Al 
though  innumerable  tons  of  grain  were  im 
ported  here,  he  saw  no  elevators  or  labor 
saving  appliances  like  those  at  Buffalo,  which 
can  load  or  empty  ships'  holds  in  a  few  half 
hours.  Many  of  the  imports  were  labelled 
"  Service  Militaire,"  and  were  for  the  support 
of  that  army  of  eight  hundred  thousand  men, 
which  the  impoverished  French  people,  even 
with  a  decreasing  population,  were  so  heavily 
taxed  to  support.  Carleton  noticed  that  mer 
chants  of  France  were  planning  to  lay  their 
hands  on  the  East  and  win  its  trade. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THROUGH     ORIENTAL     LANDS 

IT  was  "  blowing  great  guns,"  and  the  sea 
was  white  with  foam,  when  on  the  ninety- 
eighth  anniversary  of  Washington's  birthday 
into  another  world,  December  i4th,  1867,  the 
steamer  Euphrates,  of  the  M.  I.  Company,  left 
Marseilles.  The  iron  ship  was  staunch,  though 
not  overclean.  On  the  deck  were  boxed  up 
eight  carnages  for  Turks  who  had  been  visit 
ing  Paris.  The  captain  amused  himself,  in 
hours  which  ought  not  to  have  been  those  of 
leisure,  with  embroidery.  After  a  run  through 
the  Sardinian  straits,  they  had  clear  sea  room 
to  Sicily.  Stromboli  was  quiet,  but  Vesuvius 
was  lively.  At  Messina  they  took  on  coal, 
oranges,  five  Americans,  and  one  Englishman. 
On  learning  Carleton's  plan  to  travel  eastward 
to  San  Francisco,  the  Queen's  subject  re 
marked,  with  surprise  : 

204 


Through   Oriental   Lands  205 

"  There  was  a  time  when  we  Englishmen 
had  the  routes  of  travel  pretty  much  all  to 
ourselves,  but  I'll  be  hanged  if  you  Americans 
haven't  crowded  us  completely  off  the  side 
walk.  We  can't  tie  your  shoe-strings." 

Greece  was  sighted  at  sunrise.  With  Carle- 
ton's  mental  picture  of  the  great  naval  victory 
of  Navarino,  by  which  the  murderous  Turk 
was  driven  off  the  sea,  rose  boyhood's  remem 
brances  of  the  fashionable  "Navarino  bonnets," 
with  their  colossal  flaring  fronts,  with  beds  of 
artificial  flowers  set  between  brims  and  cheeks, 
making  rivalry  of  color  amid  vast  ostentation 
of  bows  and  ribbon.  With  his  glass,  he  could 
discern,  at  one  point  upon  the  hillside,  the  hut 
of  a  hermit,  who  had  discovered  that  man  can 
not  live  upon  history  alone,  but  that  beans 
and  potatoes  are  desirable.  The  practical  her 
mit  cultivated  a  garden. 

Arrival  at  Piraeus  was  at  2  A.  M.  The  party 
of  passengers  descended  the  ladder  into  a 
boat,  and  there  sat  shivering  in  their  shawls, 
where  they  were  likely  to  be  left  to  historic 
meditation  until  the  custom-house  opened, 
except  for  the  well-known  fact  that  silver  often 
conquers  steel.  One  franc,  held  up  before  the 


2o6  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

gaze  of  a  highly  important  personage  possessed 
of  a  sword  and  much  atmosphere  of  authority, 
secured  smiles  and  welcome  to  the  sacred  soil 
of  Greece,  immunity  from  search,  and  direction 
to  a  cafe  where  all  was  warm  and  comfortable, 
and  from  which,  in  due  time,  hotel  accommo 
dations  were  secured. 

In  the  city  of  Pericles,  they  saw  the  play  of 
"Antigone"  in  the  theatre  of  Herod  Atticus. 
On  visiting  the  Parthenon,  with  its  marvellous 
sculpture,  which  Turkish  soldiers  had  so  often 
used  as  a  target,  they  found  that  the  chief  in 
habitants  of  the  ruin  were  crows.  They  met 
the  missionaries  who  were  influential  in  the 
making  of  the  new  Grecian  nation.  From 
Athens  they  went  to  Constantinople,  where 
Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  in  Robert  College,  was 
lighting  the  beacon  of  hope  for  the  Christians 
in  the  Turkish  empire. 

Leaving  Europe  at  that  end  of  it  on  which 
the  Turks  have  encamped  during  four  cen 
turies,  and  where  they  are  still  blasting  and 
devouring,  Carleton  visited  Africa,  the  old 
house  of  bondage.  At  Alexandria  his  first 
greeting  was  a  cry  for  bakshish.  Within 
half  an  hour  after  landing,  most  of  his  child- 


Through   Oriental   Lands  207 

hood's  illusions  were  dispelled.  A  drenching 
rain  fell.  The  delta  of  the  Nile  had  been 
turned  into  one  vast  cotton  field  which  looked 
like  a  mass  of  snow.  The  clover  was  in 
bloom  along  the  railway  to  Cairo.  In  this 
land  of  the  donkey  and  of  the  Arabian  Nights 
Entertainments,  he  received  several  practical 
lessons  in  the  art  of  comparative  swindling, 
soon  learning  that  in  roguery  both  Christians 
and  the  followers  of  the  prophet  are  one. 

In  studying  his  Bible  amid  the  lands  which 
are  its  best  commentary,  Carleton  concluded 
that  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea  by  the  fugi 
tive  slaves  from  Egypt,  over  an  "  underground 
railway  made  by  the  order  of  God  himself," 
"  instead  of  being  in  the  domain  of  the  miracu 
lous,  is  under  natural  law."  At  Suez,  one  of 
the  half-way  houses  of  the  world,  he  was 
amused  at  the  jollity  of  the  Mohammedans, 
who  had  just  broken  their  long  lenten  fast 
from  tobacco  and  smoke,  and  who  were  very 
happy  in  their  own  way. 

In  thirty  hours  after  leaving  Alexandria,  the 
party,  now  joined  by  Rev.  E.  B.  Webb,  had 
its  first  view  of  Palestine,  —  a  sandy  shore,  low,A. 
level  as  a  Western  prairie,  tufted  with  palms, 


208  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

green  with  olives,  golden  with  orange  orchards, 
and  away  in  the  distance  an  outline  of  gray 
mountains.  Soon,  in  Jerusalem,  he  was  among 
the  donkeys,  dogs,  pilgrims,  and  muleteers. 
Out  on  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  in  starlit 
Bethlehem,  by  ancient  Hebron,  and  then  down 
to  low-lying  Jericho  and  at  the  Dead  Sea,  he 
was  refreshing  memory  and  imagination,  shed 
ding  old  fancies  and  traditions,  discriminating 
as  never  before  between  figures  of  rhetoric  and 
figures  of  rock  and  reality,  while  feeding  his 
faith  and  cheering  his  spirit.  Then  from  Jeru 
salem,  after  a  twenty  days'  stay,  the  party  rode 
northward  to  Shechem,  the  home  of  the  Sa 
maritan,  and  over  the  plain  of  Esdraelon. 
There  Carleton's  military  eye  revelled  in  the 
scene,  and  he  made  mind-pictures  of  the  bat 
tles  fought  there  during  all  the  centuries. 
Then,  after  tarrying  at  Nazareth  and  Beyrout, 
we  find  him,  April  nth,  at  Suez,  on  board  a 
steamer  for  the  East. 

At  Paris  he  had  seen  De  Lesseps,  amid  tu 
multuous  applause,  receive  from  Napoleon 
III.  a  gold  medal. 

Now  Carleton  was  on  the  steamship  Earoda^ 
moving  down  the  Red  Sea,  once  thought  to  be 


Through  Oriental   Lands  209 

an  arm  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  but  which  we 
now  know  to  be  only  a  portion  of  "  the  great 
rift  valley,"  —  the  longest  and  deepest  and 
widest  trough  on  the  earth's  surface,  which  ex 
tends  from  the  base  of  Mount  Lebanon  and  the 
Sea  of  Galilee,  through  the  Jordan  Valley,  the 
Dead  Sea,  the  dried  up  wadies,  the  Red  Sea, 
and  the  chain  of  lakes  and  Nyanzas  discovered 
in  recent  years  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  ex 
tending  nearly  to  Zanzibar.  Passing  by  Great 
Britain's  garrisons,  lighthouses,  and  coaling 
stations,  which  guard  her  pathway  to  India, 
Bombay  was  reached  April  2yth. 

In  the  interior,  in  the  distressing  hot  weather 
of  India,  Carleton  found  this  the  land  of  pun 
kas,  tatties,  and  odors  both  sweet  and  other 
wise.  He  was  impressed  with  the  amount  of 
jewelry  seen,  not  in  the  bazaars,  but  on  the 
persons  of  the  women.  "  Through  all  ages 
India  has  swallowed  up  silver,  and  the  absorp 
tion  is  as  great  as  ever  to-day."  He  was 
amused  at  the  little  men's  big  heads,  covered 
with  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  or  more,  of  tur 
ban  material,  which  made  so  many  of  them 
look  like  exaggerated  tulips.  He  noticed 
the  phenomena  of  religion,  the  trees  smeared 


2io  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

with  paint,  the  Buddhist  caves,  the  Parsee 
Towers  of  Silence,  the  phallic  emblems  of 
nature-worship.  Evidently  he  wras  not  con 
verted  to  cremation,  for  he  wrote,  "  The  earth 
is  our  mother,  and  it  is  sweeter  to  lie  on  her 
bosom  amid  blooming  flowers  or  beneath 
bending  elms  and  sighing  pines  in  God's 
Acre."  He  noticed  how  rapidly  the  rail 
ways  were  breaking  down  caste.  "The  loco 
motive,  like  a  ploughshare  turning  the  sward 
of  the  prairies,  is  cutting  up  a  faith  whose  roots 
run  down  deep  into  bygone  ages.  .  .  .  The 
engine  does  not  turn  out  for  obstructions, 
such  as  in  former  days  impeded  the  car  of 
progress." 

Though  caste  was  stronger  than  the  instincts 
of  humanity,  this  relic  of  the  brutishness  of 
conquest  was  not  allowed  to  have  sway  in  rail 
way  carriages. 

Carleton  sums  up  his  impressions  of  the  re 
ligions  of  India  in  this  sentence:  "The  world 
by  wisdom  knew  not  God."  He  found  his 
preconceived  ideas  of  central  India  all  wrong. 
Instead  of  jungles,  were  plateaus,  forest-covered 
mountains,  groves,  and  bamboo.  With  the 
thermometer  at  105°  in  the  shade,  the  wood- 


Through  Oriental   Lands  211 

work  shrunk  so  that  the  drivers  of  the  dak  or 
ox-cart  wound  the  spokes  of  the  wheels  with 
straw  and  kept  them  wet,  so  that  Carleton 
noticed  them  "  watering  their  carnage  as  well 
as  horses."  Whether  it  was  his  head  that 
swelled  or  his  hat  which  shrunk,  he  found  the 
latter  two  sizes  too  small  at  night.  In  India, 
between  June  and  October,  little  business  is 
done.  The  demand  for  cotton,  caused  by  the 
American  war,  had  set  India  farmers  to  grow 
ing  the  bolls  over  vast  areas,  but  the  cost  of 
carriage  to  the  seaboard  was  so  great  that  new 
roads  had  to  be  built. 

"  Sahib  Coffin "  at  the  garrison  towns  was 
amused  at  both  the  young  British  officers, 
with  their  airs,  and  at  the  old  veterans,  who 
were  as  dignified  as  mastiffs.  Living  in  the 
central  land  of  the  world's  fairy  tales,  he  en 
joyed  these  legends  which  "  give  perfume  to 
literature,  science,  and  art."  At  Allahabad,  in 
the  middle  of  the  fort,  he  saw  a  pillar  forty-two 
feet  high,  erected  by  King  Asoka,  250  B.  C., 
bearing  an  inscription  commanding  kindness  to 
animals.  In  one  part  of  India,  at  the  golden 
pagoda  of  Benares,  he  found  the  monkeys 
worshipped  as  gods,  or  at  least  honored  as 


2  i  2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

divine  servants,  while  in  the  North  they  were 
pests  and  thieves,  the  enemy  of  the  farmer. 

Among  other  hospitalities  enjoyed,  was  a 
dinner  with  an  American,  Mr.  C.  L.  Brown, 
who  represented  the  Tudor  Ice  Company,  of 
Boston,  and  who  sold  solidified  water  from 
Wenham  Lake.  The  piece  that  clinked  in 
the  glass  of  Carleton,  "  sparkling  and  bright 
in  its  liquid  light,"  had  been  harvested  in  1865, 
three  years  before.  He  described  it  as  a  "  piece 
of  imprisoned  cold,  fragment  of  a  bygone  win 
ter,"  which  called  up  "  bright  pictures  of  boys 
and  girls  with  their  rosy  cheeks  and  flashing 
skates,  —  a  breeze  of  old  associations."  At 
Benares,  various  root  ideas  of  Hindoo  holiness 
were  illustrated,  including  the  linga  worship  and 
the  passion  for  motherhood  in  that  strange 
phallic  cult  which,  from  India  to  Japan,  has 
survived  all  later  forms  of  religion.  In  Cal 
cutta,  Old  India  had  already  been  forgotten 
in  the  newer  and  more  Christian  India.  He 
visited  especially  the  American  Union  Mission 
Home,  where  Miss  Louise  Hook  and  Miss 
Britton  were  training  the  girls  of  India  to 
nobler  ideals  and  possibilities  of  life.  After 
seeing  the  school,  Carleton  wrote  :  "  Theirs  is  a 


Through  Oriental   Lands  213 

great  work.  Educate  the  women  of  India,  and 
we  withdraw  two  hundred  millions  from  gross 
idolatry.  This  mighty  moral  leverage  ob 
tained,  the  whole  substratum  of  society  will  be 
raised  to  a  higher  level.  The  mothers  of 
America  fought  the  late  war  through  to  its 
glorious  end.  They  sustained  the  army  by 
their  labor,  their  sympathy,  their  heroic  devo 
tion.  The  mothers  of  India  are  keeping  the 
idols  on  their  pedestals." 

Personal  accidents  in  India  were  minor  and 
amusing,  mostly.  Crossing  the  Bay  of  Bengal 
on  the  Clan  Alpine,  one  of  England's  opium 
steamers  bound  to  China,  a  boiler  blew  up. 
The  "  priming "  of  the  iron,  the  life  of  the 
metal,  having  been  burned  out  in  passing  from 
fresh  to  salt  water,  was  the  cause  of  the  trouble. 
Nineteen  persons,  eighteen  natives  and  a  Scots 
man,  were  killed  or  badly  scalded.  Carleton 
rushed  out  from  his  stateroom,  amid  clouds  of 
steam  that  made  his  path  nearly  invisible,  and 
was  happy  in  finding  his  wife  safe  on  deck  at 
the  stern.  At  sunset  the  Christian  was  given 
the  rites  of  burial.  The  dead  Hindoos,  not 
being  used  to  religious  attentions  paid  to 
corpses,  were  heaved  into  the  sea,  and  the 


214  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

voyage  continued.  This  was  not  the  first 
or  the  last  time  that  Carleton  experienced 
the  sensation  of  being  blown  up  while  on  a 
steamboat. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

IN    CHINA    AND    JAPAN 

AT  Penang,  in  the  Spice  Islands,  the  verge 
of  the  Flowery  Kingdom  seemed  to  have 
been  reached.  "  We  might  say  that  that  land 
had  bloomed  over  its  own  borders,  and  its 
blossoms  had  fallen  here.  .  .  .  Nearly  the 
entire  population  of  this  island,  125,000  in 
all,  are  Chinese."  At  Singapore,  the  town  of 
lions,  he  met  an  American  hunter  named  Car 
roll,  who  lived  with  the  natives  and  had  won 
fame  as  a  dead  shot.  Fortunately  for  human 
ity,  that  contests  with  the  aboriginal  beasts  a 
possession  of  this  part  of  the  earth,  the  leonine 
fathers  frequently  devour  their  cubs,  else  the 
earth  would  be  overrun  with  the  lions. 

Seventeen  days  on  the   Clan  Alpine  passed 

by,  and  then,  on  the   loth  of  June,  the  captain 

pointed  out  the  "Asses'  Ears,"  two  black  specks 

on  the  distant  horizon,  which  gave  them  their 

215 


216  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

first  glimpse  of  China.  On  Saturday  afternoon, 
Mrs.  Coffin  had  the  pleasure  of  being  told,  by 
the  healthy-looking  captain  of  the  sampan  or 
boat  by  which  they  were  to  get  ashore,  that  she 
\vas  "  a  red-faced  foreign  devil."  This  was  a 
Chinese  woman,  of  thirty-five  or  forty,  who 
commanded  the  craft.  The  next  day,  Sunday, 
they  went  to  church  in  sedan-chairs,  and  sat 
under  the  punkas  or  swinging-fans,  which 
cooled  the  air.  On  Monday,  while  going 
around  with,  or  calling  upon,  the  missionaries 
Preston,  Kerr,  and  Parker,  the  Americans  who 
had  a  sense  of  the  value  of  minutes  found  that 
the  "  Chinese  are  an  old  people.  Their  em 
pire  is  finished,  their  civilization  complete,  and 
time  is  a  drug."  The  walls  of  the  great  Roman 
Catholic  Cathedral,  costing  over  four  million 
dollars,  were  then  but  half-way  up. 

Being  a  true  Christian,  without  cant  or  guile, 
Carleton,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  a  warm 
friend  of  the  missionaries,  and  always  sought 
them  out  to  visit  and  cheer  them.  He  rarely 
became  their  guest,  or  accepted  hospitality 
under  the  roofs  either  of  American  consuls  or 
missionaries,  lest  critics  might  say  his  views 
were  colored  by  the  glasses  of  others.  He 


In  China  and  Japan  217 

would  have  his  own  mind  and  opinions  judi 
cial.  Nevertheless,  he  knew  that  those  who 
knew  the  language  of  the  people  were  good 
guides  and  helpers  to  intelligent  impressions. 
In  Shanghai  he  met  Messrs.  Yates,  Wilson, 
and  Thomson,  and,  in  the  Sailors'  Chapel,  Rev. 
E.  W.  Syle,  afterwards  president  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Japan.  Carleton  noticed  that  when 
the  collection  was  taken  up  among  the  tars 
present,  the  plate,  when  returned,  showed  sev 
eral  silver  dollars.  The  travellers  went  up  the 
Yangtse  in  a  New  York  built  Hudson  River 
steamer,  commanded  by  a  Yankee  captain  from 
Cape  Ann.  At  Wuchang  he  called  on  Bishop 
Williams,  whom  he  had  met  in  London  at  the 
Pan-Anglican  council,  and  who  afterwards  made 
so  noble  record  of  work  in  the  Mikado's  em 
pire. 

So  far  from  being  appalled  at  what  he  saw  of 
the  Chinese  and  their  civilization,  Carleton  noted 
many  things  to  admire,  —  their  democratic  spirit, 
their  competitive  civil  service  examinations, 
and  their  reverence  for  age  and  parental  author 
ity.  At  the  dinners  occasionally  eaten  in  a 
Chinese  restaurant,  he  asked  no  questions  as  to 
whether  the  animal  that  furnished  the  meat 


21 8  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

barked,  mewed,  bellowed,  or  whinnied,  but 
took  the  mess  in  all  good  conscience. 

From  the  middle  of  the  Sunrise  Kingdom, 
the  passage  was  made  on  the  American  Pacific 
mail-steamer  Costa  Rica,  through  a  great  storm. 
In  those  days  before  lighthouses,  the  harbor 
of  Nagasaki  was  reached  through  a  narrow 
inlet,  which  captains  of  ships  were  sometimes 
puzzled  to  find.  They  steamed  under  and 
within  easy  range  of  the  fifty  or  more  bronze 
cannon,  mounted  on  platforms  under  sheds 
along  the  cliffs.  Except  at  Shimonoseki,  in 
1863  and  1864,  when  floating  and  fast  for 
tresses,  steamers  and  land-batteries  exchanged 
their  shots,  to  the  worsting  of  the  Choshiu 
clansmen,  the  military  powers  of  the  Japanese 
had  not  yet  been  tested.  Accepting  the  local 
traditions  about  the  Papists'  Hill,  or  Papenberg, 
from  which,  in  1637,  the  insurgent  Christians 
are  said  to  have  been  hurled  into  the  sea,  Carle- 
ton  wrote,  "  The  gray  cliff,  wearing  its  emerald 
crown,  is  an  everlasting  memorial  to  the  martyr 
dead." 

It  was  in  this  harbor  that  the  American 
commander,  James  Glynn,  in  1849,  m  tne 
little  fourteen-gun  brig  Preble^  gave  the  imperi- 


In  China  and  Japan  219 

ous  and  cruel  Japanese  of  Tycoon  times  a  taste 
of  the  lesson  they  were  to  learn  from  McDougall 
and  Pearson.  Soon  they  reached  Deshima,  the 
little  island  which,  in  Japan's  modern  history, 
might  well  be  called  its  leaven ;  for  here,  for 
over  two  centuries,  the  Dutch  dispensed  those 
ideas,  as  well  as  their  books  and  merchandise, 
which  helped  to  make  the  Japan  of  our  day. 
Carleton's  impressions  of  the  Japanese  were 
that  they  had  a  more  manly  physique,  and 
were  less  mildly  tempered,  but  that  they  were 
lower  in  morals,  than  the  Chinese.  The  women 
were  especially  eager  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
crinoline,  and  anxiously  inspected  the  dress  of 
their  foreign  sisters. 

Japan,  in  1 868,  was  in  the  throes  of  civil  war. 
The  lamp  of  history  at  that  time  was  set  in  a 
dark  lantern,  and  very  few  of  the  foreigners, 
diplomatic,  missionary,  or  mercantile,  then  in 
the  islands,  had  any  clear  idea  of  what  was 
going  on,  or  why  things  were  moving  as  they 
were.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  only  a  hand 
ful  of  students,  who  had  made  themselves  fa 
miliar  with  the  ancient  native  records,  and  with 
that  remarkable  body  of  native  literature  pro 
duced  in  the  first  half  of  this  century,  could  see 


22O  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

clearly  through  the  maze,  and  explain  the  origin 
and  meaning  of  the  movement  of  the  great 
southern  clans  and  daimios  against  the  Tycoon. 
It  was  in  reality  the  assertion  of  the  Mikado's 
imperial  and  historic  claims  to  complete  suprem 
acy  against  the  Shogun's  or  lieutenant's  long 
usurpation.  It  was  an  expression  of  nationality 
against  sections.  The  civil  war  meant  "  unite 
or  die."  Carleton  naturally  shared  in  the  gen 
eral  wrong  impressions  and  darkness  that  pre 
vailed,  and  neither  his  letters  nor  his  writing 

o 

give  much  light  upon  the  political  problem, 
though  his  descriptions  of  the  scenery  and  of  the 
people  and  their  ways  make  pleasing  reading. 
In  reality,  even  as  the  first  gun  against  Su ni 
ter  and  the  resulting  civil  war  were  the  results 
of  the  clash  of  antagonistic  principles  which  had 
been  working  for  centuries,  so  the  uprising  and 
war  in  Japan  in  1868-70,  which  resulted  in 
national  unity,  one  government,  one  ruler,  one 
flag,  the  overthrow  of  feudalism,  the  abolition 
of  ancient  abuses,  and  the  making  of  new  Japan, 
resulted  from  agencies  set  in  motion  over  a 
century  before.  Foreign  intercourse  and  the 
presence  of  aliens  on  the  soil  gave  the  occasion, 
but  not  the  cause,  of  the  nation's  re-birth. 


In   China  and  Japan  221 

The  new  government  already  in  power  at 
Kioto,  under  pressure  of  bigoted  Shintoists, 
revamped  the  ancient  cult  of  Shinto,  making 
it  a  political  engine.  Persecution  of  the  native 
Christians,  who  had  lived,  with  their  faith  une- 
radicated,  on  the  old  soil  crimsoned  by  the 
blood  of  their  martyr  ancestors,  had  already 
begun.  Carleton  found  on  the  steamer  going 
North  to  Nagasaki  one  of  the  French  mission 
aries  in  Japan,  who  informed  him  that  at  least 
twenty  thousand  native  Christians  were  in  com 
munication  with  their  spiritual  advisers.  At 
sea  they  met  the  Japanese  steamer  named  after 
Sir  Harry  Parkes,  the  able  and  energetic  British 
minister,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to  understand 
the  situation  and  to  recognize  the  Mikado. 
This  steamer  had  left  Nagasaki  three  weeks 
previously,  with  four  hundred  native  Christians. 
These  had  been  tied,  bundled,  and  numbered 
like  so  many  sticks  of  firewood,  and  carried 
northward  to  the  mountain-crater  prisons  of 
Kaga. 

Many  of  these  prisoners  I  afterwards  saw. 
When  in  Boston  I  used  to  talk  with  Mr.  Coffin 
about  Japanese  history  and  politics,  and  of  the 
honored  Guido  F.  Verbeck,  one  of  the  finest 


222  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

of  scholars,  noblest  of  missionaries,  and  best 
friends  of  Japan.  No  one  was  more  amused 
than  Carleton  over  that  mistake,  in  his  letter 
and  book,  from  hearsay,  about  "  Mr.  Yer- 
beck,  a  Dutchman  who  is  trading  there " 
(Nagasaki). 

They  passed  safely  through  the  straits  of 
Shimonoseki,  admiring  the  caves,  the  surf,  the 
multitudes  of  sea-fowl,  the  silver  streams  falling 
down  from  the  heights  of  Kokura,  on  the  oppo 
site  side  of  Choshiu,  and  from  mountains  four 
thousand  feet  high,  and  made  beautiful  with 
terraces  and  shrubbery.  Through  the  narrow 
strait  where  the  water  ran  like  a  mill-race,  the 
steamer  ploughed  her  way.  They  passed  heights 
not  then,  as  a  few  years  before,  dotted  numer 
ously  with  the  black  muzzles  of  protruding 
cannon,  nor  fortified  as  they  are  now  with  steel 
domes,  heavy  masonry,  and  modern  artillery. 
Here  in  this  strait,  in  1863,  tne  ga^ant  David 
McDougall,  in  the  U.  S.  corvette  Wyoming, 
performed  what  was  perhaps  the  most  gallant 
act  ever  wrought  by  a  single  commander  in  a 
single  ship,  in  the  annals  of  our  navy.  Here, 
in  1864,  the  United  States,  in  alliance  with 
three  European  Powers,  went  to  war  with  one 


In   China  and  Japan  223 

Parrott  gun  under  Lieutenant  Pierson  on  the 
Ta-Kiang. 

Like  nearly  all  other  first  gazers  upon  the 
splendid  panorama  of  the  Inland  Sea,  Carleton 
was  enthralled  with  the  ever  changing  beauty, 
while  interested  in  the  busy  marine  life.  At 
one  time  he  counted  five  hundred  white  wings 
of  the  Old  Japan's  bird  of  commerce,  the  junk. 
At  the  new  city  of  Hiogo,  with  the  pretty  little 
settlement  of  Kobe  yet  in  embryo,  they  spent 
a  happy  day,  having  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin  to 
read  for  them  the  inscriptions  in  the  Chinese 
characters  on  the  Shinto  temple  stones  and 
tablets. 

The  ship  then  moved  northward,  through 
that  wonder  river  in  the  ocean,  the  Kuro-Shiwo, 
or  Black  Current,  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the 
Pacific,  first  discovered  and  described  by  the 
American  captain,  Silas  Bent.  The  great 
landmarks  were  clearly  visible,  —  Idzu,  with 
its  mountains  and  port  of  Shimoda,  where 
Townsend  Harris  had  won  the  diplomatic  vic 
tory  which  opened  Japan  to  foreign  residence 
and  commerce  ;  white-hooded  Fuji  San,  looking 
as  chaste  and  pure  as  a  nun,  with  her  first  dress 
of  summer  snow  ;  Vries  Island,  with  its  column 


224  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

of  gray  smoke.  Further  to  the  east  were  the 
Bonin  Islands,  first  visited  by  Captain  Reuben 
Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  in  the  ship  Transit,  in 
1824.  When  past  Saratoga  Spit,  Webster  Isle, 
and  Mississippi  Bay,  the  party  stepped  ashore 
at  Yokohama,  where  on  the  hill  was  a  British 
regiment  in  camp.  The  redcoats  had  been 
ordered  from  India  during  the  dangers  conse 
quent  upon  civil  strife,  and  belonged  to  the 
historic  Tenth  Regiment,  which  Carleton's 
grandfather  and  his  fellow  patriots  had  met  on 
Bunker  Hill. 

It  was  a  keen  disappointment  to  Carleton 
not  to  be  able  to  see  Tokio,  then  forbidden  to 
the  tourist,  because  of  war's  commotion.  A 
heavy  battle  had  been  fought  July  4,  1868,  at 
Uyeno,  of  old  the  place  of  temples,  and  now 
of  parks  and  exhibitions,  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  city.  The  Mikado's  forces  then  moved 
on  the  strongholds  of  the  rebels  at  Aidzu,  but 
foreigners  knew  very  little  of  what  was  then 
going  on.  After  a  visit  to  the  mediaeval  capi 
tal  of  the  Shoguns,  at  Kamakura,  he  took  the 
steamer  southward  to  Nagasaki,  and  again  set 
his  face  eastward.  He  was  again  a  traveller  to 
the  Orient,  that  is,  to  America.  On  the  home- 


In  China  and  Japan  225 

ward  steamer,  the  Colorado,  were  forty-one  first- 
class  passengers,  of  whom  sixteen  were  going  to 
Europe,  taking  this  new,  as  it  was  the  nearest 
and  cheapest,  way  home.  Below  deck  were 
one  thousand  Chinese.  Before  the  steamer 
got  out  of  the  harbor  it  stopped,  at  the  request 
of  Admiral  Rowan,  and  four  unhappy  deserters 
were  taken  off. 

The  Pacific  Ocean  was  crossed  in  calm.  It 
seemed  but  a  very  few  days  of  pleasant  sailing 
on  the  great  peaceful  ocean,  —  with  the  days' 
gorgeous  sunrises  and  sunsets,  which  hollowed 
out  of  the  sky  caverns  upon  caverns  of  light 
full  of  color  more  wonderful  than  Ali  Baba's 
treasure-chamber,  and  nights  spiritually  lovely 
with  the  silvery  light  of  moon  and  stars.  On 
August  1 5th,  1868,  they  passed  through  the 
Golden  Gate,  and  "Aladdin's  palace  of  the 
West,"  the  cosmopolitan  city  of  San  Francisco, 
was  before  their  eyes. 

Not  more  wonderful  than  the  things  ephem 
eral  and  the  strange  changes  going  on  in  the 
city,  wherein  were  very  few  old  men,  but  only 
the  young  and  strong  of  many  nations,  were 
the  stabilities  of  life.  Carleton  found  time  to 
examine  and  write  about  education,  the  libraries, 


226  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

churches,  asylums,  chanties,  and  the  begin 
nings  of  literature,  science,  and  art.  In  one  of 
the  schools  he  found  them  debating  "  whether 
Congress  was  right  in  ordering  Major  Andre 
to  be  executed."  Lest  some  might  think 
Carleton  lacking  in  love  to  "  Our  Old  Home," 
we  quote,  "It  is  neither  politic,  wise,  nor 
honest  to  instill  into  the  youthful  mind  ani 
mosity  towards  England  or  any  other  nation, 
especially  for  acts  committed  nearly  a  century 
ago." 

In  his  youth  he  had  played  the  battles  of 
Bunker  Hill  and  Bennington,  in  which  his 
living  ancestors  had  fought,  and  of  which  they 
had  told  him,  —  using  the  roadside  weeds  as 
British  soldiers,  and  sticks,  stones,  and  a  corn 
stalk  knife  for  weapons.  In  after-life,  he  often 
expressed  the  emphatic  opinion  that  our  school 
histories  were  viciously  planned  and  written, 
preserving  a  spirit  that  boded  no  good  for  the 
future  of  our  country  and  the  wrorld.  In  the 
nineties,  he  was  asked  by  the  Harpers  to  write 
a  history  of  the  United  States  for  young 
people.  This  he  hoped  to  do,  correcting 
prejudices,  and  emphasizing  the  moral  union 
between  the  two  nations  using  English  speech  ; 


In  China  and  Japan  227 

but  all  too  soon  the  night  came  when  he  could 
not  do  the  work  proposed. 

Remaining  in  California  over  two  months, 
Carleton  started  eastward  in  the  late  autumn 
over  the  Central  Pacific  railway,  writing  from 
Salt  Lake  City  what  he  saw  and  knew  about 
Mormonism  and  the  polygamy  and  concubi 
nage  there  shamefully  prevalent.  From  the 
town  of  Argenti,  leaving  the  iron  rails,  they 
enjoyed  and  suffered  seven  days  and  nights  of 
staging  until  smooth  iron  was  entered  upon 
once  more.  They  passed  several  specimens 
of  what  Carleton  called  "pandemonium  on 
wheels,"  —  those  temporary  settlements  swarm 
ing  with  gamblers  and  the  worst  sort  of  human 
beings,  male  and  female.  They  abode  some 
time  in  the  city  of  Latter  Day  Saints.  They 
saw  Chicago.  "  Home  Again"  was  sung  be 
fore  Christmas  day.  Once  more  he  breathed 
the  salt  air  of  Boston.  Carleton  wrote  a  series 
of  letters  on  c<  The  Science  of  Travel,"  show 
ing  where,  when,  and  for  how  much,  one  could 
enjoy  himself  in  the  various  countries  and 
climates  in  going  around  the  world. 

Carleton  summed  up  his  impressions  after 
completing  the  circuit  of  the  globe  in  declaring 


Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


that  three  aggressive  nations,  England,  Russia, 
and  the  United  States,  were  the  chief  makers 
of  modern  history, — America  being  the  great 
est  teacher  of  them  all,  and  "our  flag  the  sym 
bol  of  the  world's  best  hope." 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE    GREAT    NORTHWEST 

IT  was  one  of  the  great  disappointments  of 
Carleton's  life  that,  on  returning  from  his 
journey  around  the  world,  he  was  not  made, 
as  he  had  with  good  reason  fully  expected  to 
be  made,  chief  editor  of  the  Boston  Journal. 
We  need  not  go  into  details  of  the  matter, 
but  suffice  it  to  say,  that  Carleton  was  not  one 
to  waste  time  in  idle  regrets.  Indeed,  his  was 
a  character  that  could  be  tested  by  disappoint 
ments,  which,  in  his  life,  were  not  a  few.  In 
stead  of  bitterness,  came  the  ripened  fruit  of 
patience  and  mellowness  of  character. 

His  renewed  acquaintance  with  the  region 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  which  he  had  made 
during  his  recent  trip  across  the  continent, 
only  whetted  his  appetite  for  more  seeing  and 
knowing  of  the  future  seat  of  America  empire. 

He  accepted  with  pleasure  a  commission  to  ex- 

229 


230  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

plore  the  promising  regions  of  Minnesota  and 
Dakota,  and  to  give  an  account  especially  of 
the  Red  River  Valley. 

Already,  in  1858,  he  had  written  and  pub 
lished,  at  his  own  expense,  a  pamphlet  of 
twenty-three  pages,  entitled  "The  Great  Com 
mercial  Prize,"  Boston,  A.  Williams  &  Co. 
It  cost  him  fifty  dollars,  then  a  large  sum  for 
him,  from  which  the  advantage  accrued  to  the 
nation  at  large.  It  was  addressed  to  every 
American  who  values  the  prosperity  of  his 
country.  It  was  "An  inquiry  into  the  present 
and  prospective  commercial  position  of  the 
United  States,  and  a  plea  for  the  immediate 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  Missouri  River 
to  Puget  Sound."  It  opens  with  a  review  of 
the  great  events  in  the  world  which  have  had 
a  direct  and  all-important  bearing  upon  the 
United  States.  Hitherto,  since  the  modern 
mastery  of  the  ocean  through  the  mariner's 
compass  and  the  science  of  navigation,  the  At 
lantic  had  been  the  domain  of  sea  power. 
The  Pacific  was  in  future  to  be  the  scene  of 
greater  opportunities  and  grander  commercial 
developments.  With  China  and  Japan 'enter 
ing  the  brotherhood  of  nations,  and  Russia  ex- 


The  Great  Northwest  231 

tending  its  power  towards  the  Pacific,  "  five  hun 
dred  millions  of  human  beings  were  henceforth 
to  be  reached  by  the  hand  of  civilization." 
The  countries  and  continents  bordering  the 
greatest  of  oceans  were  animated  with  new  ideas 
of  progress.  On  our  own  western  shores,  Cali 
fornia,  Oregon,  and  Washington  were  await 
ing  the  touch  of  industry  to  yield  their  riches. 
As  a  reader  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  Carle- 
ton  pointed  out  the  great  changes  which  were 
to  take  place  in  the  thoroughfares  of  trade  and 
travel.  Instead  of  civilization  depending  for 
its  communication  with  India,  China,  and  Japan, 
by  passages  around  the  southern  capes  of  the 
two  continents,  the  paths  of  water  and  land 
traffic  were  to  be  directly  from  China,  Russia, 
and  Japan  to  northern  America.  Noticing 
that  England  had  made  herself  the  world's 
banking-house,  he  saw  that  the  time  had  come 
when  the  United  States  (which  he  believed  to 
be  potentially,  at  least,  a  larger  and  a  nobler 
England)  must  stretch  out  her  left  hand,  as 
well  as  her  right,  for  the  grasping  of  the 
world's  prizes.  He  pointed  out  the  wonder 
ful  openings  along  the  shore,  providing  harbors 
at  the  mouths  of  the  two  great  river  systems 


23  2  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

on  the  Pacific  Coast,  those  of  the  Sacramento 
and  the  Columbia. 

Carleton  urged  that  "  A  railroad  to  Puget 
Sound,  constructed  immediately,  alone  will 
take  the  key  of  the  Northwest  from  the  hands 
of  the  nations  which  stand  with  us  in  the  front 
rank  of  power.  "  Important  as  the  railway  to 
San  Francisco  was,  it  would  not  yield  the 
prize.  To  his  vision  it  was  even  then  per 
fectly  clear,  as  to  all  the  world  it  has  been  since 
the  Chino-Japanese  war  of  1894-95,  that  the 
chief  American  staple  which  China  and  Japan 
needs  is  cotton,  though  machinery,  petroleum, 
and  flour  are  in  demand.  After  giving  facts, 
statistics,  and  well-wrought  arguments,  he 
wrote  :  "Again  we  say  it  is  easy  for  America  to 
lay  its  hand  upon  the  greatest  prize  of  all 
times,  to  make  herself  the  world's  workshop, — 
the  world's  banker.  Shall  England  or  the 
United  States  control  the  northwestern  section 
of  the  continent  and  the  trade  of  the  Pacific  ?  ' 

Over  a  decade  later  on,  in  1869,  Carleton 
revelled  in  the  opportunity  of  being  once  more 
the  herald  and  informer  concerning  regions 
ready  to  welcome  the  plough,  the  machine-shop, 
the  home,  the  church,  the  school,  and  the  glo- 


The  Great  Northwest  233 

ries  of  civilization.  He  spent  several  months 
mostly  in  the  open  air  and  chiefly  on  horse 
back,  though  often  on  foot  and  in  vehicles  of 
various  descriptions,  camping  out  under  the 
stars,  or  accepting  such  rough  accommodation 
as  was  then  afforded  in  regions  where  palace 
cars,  elegant  hotels,  and  comfortable  homes 
are  now  commonplaces.  His  letters  to  the 
Journal  were  breezy  and  sparkling.  They 
diffused  the  aroma  of  the  Western  forests  and 
prairies,  while  marked  with  that  same  wealth  of 
graphic  detail,  spice  of  anecdote,  lambent  hu 
mor,  and  garnish  of  a  conversation  which  de 
lighted  the  readers  of  his  correspondence  from 
the  army  and  from  the  older  seats  of  empire  in 
Asia  and  in  Europe.  Carleton's  literary  pho 
tographs  were  the  means  of  moving  many  a 
young  and  adventurous  couple  from  their 
homes  in  the  East  to  the  frontier,  and  of  firing 
the  ambition  of  many  a  lad  and  lass  to  seek 
their  fortune  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Since 
California  was  settled  and  the  Pacific  Coast  oc 
cupied  even  at  scattered  points,  our  frontiers, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  have  not  been  at  the 
eastern  or  western  ends,  but  on  the  middle  of 
the  country. 


234  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

After  this  campaign  of  correspondence, 
Carleton  returned  home  and  wrote  that  little 
book  which  has  been  so  widely  read,  both  in 
the  East  and  in  the  West,  entitled  "  The  Seat 
of  Empire."  It  was  published  in  1870  by 
Fields  &  Co.,  of  Boston.  It  had  eight  pages 
of  introduction,  with  a  map  of  the  territory  yet 
to  be  settled.  It  was  a  volume  of  232  pages, 
i6mo,  and  was  illustrated.  For  many  years 
afterwards,  amid  the  hundreds  of  letters  re 
ceived  from  grateful  readers  of  his  books,  none 
seemed  to  give  Carleton  more  pleasure  than 
those  from  readers  who  had  become  settlers. 
This  little  book  had  indeed  come  to  many  as  a 
revelation  of  the  promised  land.  The  conta 
gion  reached  even  to  Mrs.  Coffin's  brothers, 
one  of  whom,  with  a  nephew  of  Carleton,  be-" 
came  a  pioneer  farmer  in  the  Red  River  Valley 
in  Dakota. 

Another  pathfinder,  a  literary  as  well  as  mil 
itary  pioneer  in  opening  this  noble  region  to 
civilization,  was  the  warm  friend  of  Carleton 
and  of  the  writer,  General  Henry  B.  Carring- 
ton,  of  the  United  States  regular  army,  and 
author  of  that  standard  authority,  "  Battles  of 
the  American  Revolution."  During  the  Civil 


The  Great  Northwest  235 

War,  General  Carrington  had  been  stationed 
in  Indiana,  where  he  was  the  potent  agent 
in  spoiling  the  treasonable  schemes  of  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  and  in  nobly 
seconding  Governor  Morton  in  holding  the 
State  true  to  the  Union.  The  war  over,  he 
served  on  the  Western  plains  until  1868, 
and  then  wrote  "Absaraka,  the  Home  of  the 
Crows,"  which  was  a  score  of  years  afterwards 
republished  under  the  title  of  "  Absaraka, 
the  Land  of  Massacre."  General  Carrington 
was  afterwards  one  of  the  active  members 
of  Shawmut  Church.  With  his  fine  schol 
arly  and  literary  tastes,  he  made  a  delightful 
companion. 

Any  well-told  narrative  of  the  exploration, 
conquest,  and  civilization  of  a  country,  with  a 
history  which  has  helped  to  make  the  pageant 
and  procession  of  human  achievement  so  rich, 
is,  when  fully  known,  of  thrilling  interest. 
How  grand  is  the  story  of  the  Aryans  in  India, 
of  the  first  historic  invaders  of  Japan,  of  the 
Roman  advance  into  northern  Europe,  of  the 
making  of  Africa  and  of  western  America  in 
our  own  times  !  Even  the  culture-epoch  of 
the  North  American  Indians,  as  written  by 


236  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

Longfellow,  in  his  "  Song  of  Hiawatha,"  is  as 
fascinating  as  a  fairy  tale. 

Carleton,  believing  himself  and  his  country 
to  be  "  in  the  foremost  files  of  time  "  and  "  the 
heirs  of  all  the  ages,"  came,  saw,  and  wrote  of 
our  empire  in  the  Northwest,  with  an  intoxica 
tion  of  delight.  Furthermore,  he  believed  that 
those  who  came  after  him  would  see  vastly 
more  of  this  part  of  the  earth  replenished  and 
subdued.  Yet  the  conquest  for  which  he 
longed  was  not  to  be  with  blood.  His  hope 
and  his  purpose  were  intensely  ethical  and  spir 
itual.  His  vision  was  of  the  triumph  of  peace, 
law,  order,  religion.  He  urged  emigrants 
looking  beyond  the  Mississippi,  or  the  Rock 
ies,  to  go  in  groups,  and  take  with  them  "  the 
moral  atmosphere  of  their  old  homes."  He 
advocated  the  opening  of  a  school  the  first 
week  and  a  Sunday  school  the  first  Sunday 
following  the  arrival  of  such  a  colony  at  its 
destination.  Even  a  bare,  new  home,  cramped 
and  poor,  he  suggested,  might  be  to  them  the 
type  of  a  better  one  in  more  prosperous  years, 
and  of  the  Home  beyond,  so  that,  from  the 
beginning,  "  on  Sabbath  morning,  swelling 
upward  on  the  air,  sweeter  than  the  lay  of  the 


The  Great  Northwest 


lark  among  the  flowers,  will  ascend  the  songs 
of  the  Sunday  school  established  in  their  new 
home.  Looking  forward  with  ardent  hope  of 
the  earthly  prosperous  years,  they  would  look 
still  beyond  to  the  heavenly,  and  sing: 

'  My  heavenly  home  is  bright  and  fair; 
Nor  pain  nor  death  can  enter  there.' ' 

In  Japan's  long  and  brilliant  roll  of  benefac 
tors  and  civilizers,  no  names  shine  more  glo 
riously  than  those  of  the  Openers  of  Mountain 
paths,  —  of  men,  priests  or  laymen,  who,  by 
showing  the  way,  surmounting  the  dangers  and 
difficulties,  revealed  and  made  accessible  great 
spaces  of  land  for  home  and  harvest  field. 
The  Hebrew  prophet  speaks  eloquently  of 
those  who  "  raise  up  the  foundation  of  many 
generations,"  and  of  those  called  "the  restorer 
of  the  paths  to  dwell  in."  In  this  glorious 
company  of  the  world's  benefactors,  Carleton's 
name  is  written  indelibly.  Even  "  far-sighted" 
men  deemed  the  project  of  a  railway  to  Puget 
Sound  "visionary,"  when  Carleton's  pamphlet 
was  published.  He  lived  to  see  it  a  reality. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE    WRITER    OF    HISTORY 

OTEEPED  in  the  ancestral  lore  of  New 
O  England,  a  student  of  the  origins  of  this 
country,  a  reader  of,  and  thinker  upon,  the 
records  of  the  past,  having  seen  history  in  its 
making,  and,  as  it  were,  in  the  very  furnace  and 
crucibles  of  war,  having  traversed  the  globe 
along  the  line  of  its  highest  civilizations,  hav 
ing  watched  at  the  cradle  of  our  own  nobler 
empire  in  the  great  West,  Carleton  determined 
to  write  for  the  young  people  of  this  nation 
the  story  of  liberty,  and  of  liberty's  highest 
expression,  "  The  American  People  and  Their 
Government." 

It  was  not  a  sudden  impulse  that  came  to 
him,  it  was  no  accident,  but  the  result  of  a 
deliberate  purpose.  Opportunity  and  leisure 
now  made  the  way  perfectly  clear.  He  had 
long  been  of  the  opinion  that  the  events  of 
history  might  be  presented  vividly  to  the 

238 


The  Writer  of  History  239 

youthful  mind  in  a  series  of  pictures.  He 
would  portray  the  experiences  of  individuals 
whom  the  reader  has  been  led  to  regard  as 
persons,  and  not  merely  parts  of  an  army,  a 
church,  and  a  government.  He  believed  this 
was  a  better  method,  with  young  readers  at 
least,  than  that  usually  followed  by  the  majority 
of  writers  of  history.  To  form  his  style,  he 
read  and  re-read  the  very  best  English  authors. 
He  studied  Burke  especially,  and  ascribed  to 
him  the  strongest  single  literary  influence  he 
had  known.  Years  afterwards,  when  (like  the 
swords  of  the  Japanese  steel-smiths,  Muramasa 
and  Sanemori,  which  never  would  rest  quietly 
in  their  scabbards,  but  always  kept  flying  out) 
Carleton's  books  were  nearly  always  usefully 
absent  from  the  shelves,  the  librarian  at  Dover, 
New  Hampshire,  in  surprise  made  criticism  to 
his  face  of  Carleton's  own  statement  about 
Burke.  She  remarked  to  him  that  she  had  not 
thought  of  Burke  as  a  model  for  a  person 
intending  to  write  fiction,  —  referring,  doubt 
less,  to  "Winning  His  Way/'  and  "Caleb 
Krinkle." 

Carleton  replied  tihat  the  strong,  fine  style  of 
the  British  author  gave  him  the  best  possible 


240  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

lesson  in  presenting  a  subject.  "  Whether 
writing  fiction  or  fact,  if  the  author  wished  to 
make  and  retain  an  impression  on  the  mind  of 
his  reader,  let  him  study  Burke."  At  a  partic 
ular  time,  as  the  chief  librarian  of  a  large  public 
library  told  him,  Carleton's  books  were  more 
largely  read  than  those  of  any  living  writer  in 
the  world. 

"  Caleb  Krinkle "  is  a  story  of  American 
life  in  which  the  characters,  the  habits  of 
thought,  and  the  rich  details  of  daily  routine 
are  given  with  minuteness,  accuracy  of  obser 
vation,  and  genuine  sympathy.  The  land 
scape  is  that  of  New  Hampshire,  but  the 
outlook  is  far  beyond,  for  the  author's  pur 
pose  is  to  sow  broadcast  the  seeds  of  true  dig 
nity,  manliness,  and  republicanism.  The  hero 
is  a  good  one,  but  of  no  uncommon  type. 

The  young  Yankee  finds  the  battle  of  life 
hard,  but  also  fights  it  bravely,  and,  in  good 
time,  conquers.  The  secondary  actor,  Dan 
Dishaway,  is  a  wholly  original  character,  a  tin 
peddler  with  little  education  and  unpolished 
manners,  but  with  a  loyal  heart,  and  a  simple, 
unconscious  character  that  impressed  and  in 
fluenced  the  whole  village.  The  teacher  of 


The  Writer  of  History  241 

teachers,  to  him,  was  his  mother.  The  very 
foundation  of  the  story  is  the  value  of  human 
character,  apart  from  the  accidents  of  birth  or 
position.  The  plot  develops  rapidly,  and  is 
illustrated  by  exciting  incidents  of  river  fresh 
ets,  shipwreck  on  one  of  the  great  lakes,  and  a 
prairie  fire.  Love  is  shown  to  be  no  respecter 
of  persons,  but  is  found  faithful,  pure,  and  deli 
cate,  in  people  who  never  heard  of  cosmic  phi 
losophy,  or  the  term  "  altruism,"  who  knew  not 
the  classics,  who  went  sadly  astray  in  grammar. 
Without  direct  preaching,  the  story  shows  that 
the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard,  and  that 
the  hardness  is  not  lessened  by  worldly  pros 
perity. 

The  critic  quickly  notices,  however,  that 
Carleton  is  not  so  successful  in  his  pictures  of 
city  life  as  those  of  the  country.  Nevertheless, 
in  modern  days,  when  the  population  of  Boston 
consists  not  of  people  born  there,  but  chiefly 
of  newcomers  from  the  country,  from  Canada, 
or  from  Europe,  Carleton  was  all  the  more  a 
helper.  An  American  who  has  mastered 
French,  even  though  not  perfect  in  pronun 
ciation,  may  be  a  better  teacher  of  it  than 
a  native. 


24-  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Bertha  Wayland's  success  in  society,  and  her 
Boston  lite,  made  a  very  attractive  portion  of 
the  book  to  a  large  number  of  readers  at  rural 
firesides.  For  who  in  New  England,  and  still 
young,  does  not  hope  some  day  to  live  in  sight 
of  the  golden  dome?  In  later  years,  "  Caleb 
Krinkle  "  was  republished,  with  some  revision 
and  in  much  handsomer  form,  as  "  Dan  of  Mill- 
brook,"  by  Estes  and  Lauriat,  of  Boston. 

His  next  work,  wrhich  still  remains  the  most 
popular  of  all,  the  one  least  likely  to  suffer  by 
the  lapse  of  time,  and  the  last  probably  to 
reach  oblivion,  because  it  appeals  to  young 
Americans  in  the  whole  nation,  is  his  "  Boys 
of  '76."  The  first  lore  to  which  Carleton 
listened  after  his  infant  lips  had  learned  prayer, 
and  "  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept," 
from  the  Bible,  was  from  his  soldier-grand 
fathers.  These  around  the  open  fireplace  told 
the  story  of  Revolutionary  marches,  and  camps, 
and  battles.  Nothing  could  be  more  real  to 
the  open-eyed  little  boy  than  the  narratives 
related  by  the  actors  themselves,  especially 
when  he  could  ask  questions,  and  get  full  light 
and  explanation. 

For  an  author  who  would  write  on  the  be- 


The  Writer  of  History  243 

ginnings  of  the  Revolution,  no  part  of  our 
country  is  so  rich  in  historic  sites,  and  so 
superbly  equipped  with  libraries,  museums, 
relics,  and  memorials,  as  the  valley  of  the 
Charles  River,  in  Massachusetts.  In  this  region 
lies  Boston,  where  not  the  first,  though  nearly 
the  first,  blood  of  the  Revolution  was  shed ; 
where  were  hung  for  Paul  Revere  the  lantern- 
beacons  ;  which  was  first  the  base  of  operations 
against  Bunker  Hill ;  and  which  afterward  suf 
fered  siege,  and  served  as  the  outlet  for  the 
Tories  to  Canada,  when  Howe  and  his  fleet 
sailed  away.  Across  the  river  is  the  battle- 
road  to  Lexington,  now  nobly  marked  with 
monumental  stones  and  tablets,  and,  further  on, 
Lexington  itself,  with  its  blood-consecrated 
green  and  inscribed  boulder,  its  museum,  and 
its  well-marked  historic  spots.  Beyond  is 
Concord,  with  its  bridge,  well-site,  and  bronze 
minuteman.  From  the  crest  of  the  green 
mound  on  Bunker  Hill,  at  Charlestown,  rises 
the  granite  monument  seen  from  all  the  coun 
try  round.  Near  to  Boston,  is  Cambridge 
with  its  university,  Washington's  elm,  and 
manifold  Revolutionary  memories ;  while  on 
the  southeast,  on  the  rising  ground  close  at 


244  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

hand,  and  now  part  of  the  municipality  itself, 
are  Dorchester  Heights,  once  fortified  and 
bristling  with  cannon.  Within  easy  reach  by 
rail,  water,  or  wheel,  are  places  already  magnetic 
to  the  tourist  and  traveller,  because  their  repu 
tations  have  been  richly  enlarged  by  poet,  artist, 
romancer,  and  historian.  Along  the  coast,  or 
slightly  inland,  stood  the  humble  homes  of  the 
ancestors  of  Grant  and  Lincoln,  and  but  a 
little  further  to  the  southeast  is  the  "  holy 
ground  "  of  Plymouth. 

Even  more  important  to  the  historiographer 
are  the  amazing  treasures  of  books  and  records 
gathered  in  the  twin  cities  on  the  Charles,  mak 
ing  a  wealth  of  material  for  American  history, 
unique  in  the  United  States.  What  wonder, 
then,  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  Amer 
ican  writers  of  history  have  wrought  here  P 
Nor  need  we  be  surprised  that,  both  in  their 
general  tone  and  in  the  bulk  of  their  writing, 
they  have  portrayed  less  the  real  history  of  the 
United  States  than  the  history  of  New  Eng 
land, —  with  a  glance  at  parts  adjacent  and  an 
occasional  distant  view  of  regions  beyond. 

Graphic,  powerful,  and  popular  as  are  Carle- 
ton's  books,  he  does  not  wholly  escape  the 


The   Writer  of  History  245 

limitations  of  his  heredity  and  environment. 
Generous  as  he  is,  and  means  to  be,  to  other 
States,  nationalities,  and  sections  in  the  United 
States,  beyond  those  in  the  six  Eastern  States, 
the  student  more  familiar  with  the  great  con 
structive  forces  of  the  Middle,  the  Southern, 
and  the  Western  States,  who  knows  the  power 
of  Princeton  as  well  as  of  Harvard,  of  Dutch 
as  well  as  of  Yankee,  without  necessarily  con 
testing  Carleton's  statements  of  fact,  is  inclined 
to  discern  larger  streams  of  influence,  and  to 
give  greater  credit  to  sources  and  develop 
ments  of  power,  and  to  men  and  institutions 
west  and  south  of  the  Hudson  River,  than 
does  Carleton  in  his  books. 

Yet  to  the  millions  of  his  readers,  history 
seemed  to  be  written  in  a  new  way.  It  was 
different  from  anything  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed.  Peter  Parley  had,  indeed, 
in  his  time,  created  a  fresh  style  of  historical 
narration,  which  captivated  unnumbered  read 
ers  by  its  simple  and  direct  method  of  present 
ing  subjects  known  in  their  general  outline,  but 
not  made  of  sufficient  human  or  present  inter 
est.  These  works  had  suited  exactly  the  stage 
of  culture  which  the  majority  of  young  people 


246  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

in  our  country  had  reached  when  the  Parley 
books  were  written.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  those  same  works  would  have  achieved 
a  like  success  in  the  last  three  decades  of  this 
century.  Education  had  been  so  much  im 
proved,  schools  were  so  much  more  general, 
the  development  of  the  press  and  cheap  read 
ing  matter  was  so  great,  that  in  the  enlargement 
of  view  consequent  upon  the  successful  issue 
of  the  great  civil  war,  a  higher  order  of  histori 
cal  narration  was  a  necessity.  He  who  would 
win  the  new  generation  needed  to  be  neither 
a  professional  scholar,  a  man  of  research,  nor  a 
genius,  but  he  must  know  human  nature  well, 
and  be  familiar  with  great  national  movements, 
the  causes  and  the  channels  of  power.  This 
equipment,  together  with  a  style  fashioned, 
indeed,  in  the  newspaper  office,  but  deepened 
and  enriched  by  the  study  of  language,  of 
rhetoric,  and  of  masterly  literary  methods,  as 
seen  in  the  best  English  prose,  made  Carleton 
the  elect  historian  for  the  new  generation,  and 
the  educator  of  the  youth  of  our  own  and  the 
coming  century. 

Carleton  is  a  maker  of  pictures.      He  turns 
types  into  prismatics,  and  paragraphs  into  paint- 


The  Writer  of  History  247 

ings.  He  lifts  the  past  into  the  present.  The 
event  is  seen  as  though  it  happened  yesterday, 
and  the  persons,  be  they  kings  or  plough-boys, 
appear  as  if  living  to-day.  Their  hearts,  affec 
tions,  motives,  thoughts,  are  just  like  those  of 
men  and  women  in  our  time.  Their  clothing 
and  way  of  living  may  be  different,  but  they 
are  the  sort  of  human  beings  with  which  we 
are  acquainted.  Better  yet,  it  is  not  only 
the  men  with  crowns  on  their  heads,  or  the 
women  who  wear  jewelled  and  embroidered 
robes,  or  riders  locked  up  in  steel,  or  men 
under  tonsure  or  tiara,  that  did  great  things 
and  made  the  world  move.  Carleton  shows 
how  the  milk-maid,  the  wagoner,  the  black 
smith,  the  spinster  with  the  distaff,  the  rower 
of  the  boat,  the  common  soldier  on  foot,  the 
student  in  his  cell,  and  the  peddler  with  his 
pack,  all  had  a  part  in  working  out  the  won 
derful  story. 

Had  a  part,  did  I  say  ?  No,  in  Carleton's 
story  he  has  a  part.  No  writer  more  fre 
quently  and  with  keener  effect  uses  the  histori 
cal  present.  Compare  Carleton's  straightfor 
ward  narration  and  marching  chapters  with  the 
average  British  writer  of  history,  and  at  once 


248  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

we  see  the  difference  between  chroniclers,  — 
who  give  such  enormous  space  to  kings,  queens 
and  ecclesiastical  and  military  figure-heads,  al 
most  to  the  extent  (in  the  eye  of  the  philo 
sophic  student,  at  least)  of  caricature,  —  and 
this  modern  scribe,  to  whom  every  true  man 
is  a  sovereign,  while  a  king  is  no  more  than  a 
man.  While  well  able  to  measure  personal 
ities  and  forces,  to  divine  causes,  and  to  dis 
cern  and  emphasize  in  the  foreground  of  his 
pictures,  even  as  an  artist  does,  the  important 
figure,  yet  Carleton  is  never  at  a  loss  to  do  this 
because  the  real  hero  may  be  of  humble  birth 
or  in  modest  apparel. 

In  travelling,  the  little  child  from  the  car 
window  will  notice  many  things  in  the  land 
scape  and  about  the  houses  passed,  belonging 
to  his  lowly  world  of  experience,  no  higher 
than  the  top  of  a  yardstick,  to  which  the 
average  adult  is  blind.  Carleton  looked  with 
the  child's  eye  over  history's  field.  He  brings 
before  the  front  lights  of  his  stage  what  will  at 
once  catch  the  attention  of  the  young  people, 
to  whom  the  deeper  things  of  life  may  be 
invisible  mystery.  Yet,  Carleton's  books  are 
always  enjoyable  to  the  mature  man,  for  he 


The  Writer  of  History  249 

discerns  beneath  the  vivid  picturing  and  sim 
ple  rhetoric,  so  pleasing  to  the  child,  a  practi 
cal  knowledge  and  a  philosophic  depth  which 
shows  that  the  writer  is  a  master  of  the  art  of 
reading  men  and  events  as  well  as  of  interpret 
ing  history. 

Mr.  Coffin's  more  serious  productions  are 
his  arguments  before  Congressional  and  State 
legislative  committees ;  his  pamphlets  on  the 
labor  question,  railways,  and  patents ;  his  ad 
dresses  before  general  audiences  and  gatherings 
of  scientific,  commercial,  and  religiously  inter 
ested  men ;  his  .life  of  Garfield,  as  well  as  that 
of  Lincoln  ;  and  those  voluminous  contribu 
tions  made  to  the  daily  or  weekly  press,  and 
to  magazines,  and  to  reviews.  Editors  often 
turned  to  him  for  that  kind  of  light  and 
knowledge  that  the  public  needed  when  grave 
issues  were  before  the  church,  the  city,  the 
commonwealth,  the  nation.  In  speaking  or 
writing  thus,  he  used  a  less  ornate  style,  less 
fervid  rhetoric,  and  spoke  or  wrote  with  direct, 
business-like  precision.  In  a  word,  he  suited 
his  style  to  the  work  in  hand.  But,  because 
he  attracted  and  delighted,  while  teaching,  his 
young  readers,  that  critic  must  be  blind  or  un- 


250  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

appreciative  who  cannot  see  also  the  purpose 
of  a  master  mind.  The  mature  intellect  of 
Carleton  which  animates  and  informs  the 
pretty  stories,  educated  also  up  and  on  to 
the  nobler  heights  of  historical  reading. 

Strictly  speaking,  in  the  light  of  the  more 
rigid  canons  of  historical  knowledge  and  the 
research  demanded  in  our  days,  and  when 
tested  by  stern  criticism,  Mr.  Coffin  was  not 
a  historical  scholar  of  the  first  order.  Nor  did 
he  make  any  such  pretension.  No  one,  cer 
tainly  not  himself,  would  dream  of  ranging  his 
name  in  the  same  line  with  those  of  the  great 
masters,  Prescott,  Motley,  Bancroft,  or  Park- 
man, —  men  of  wealth  and  leisure,  as  well  as 
of  ability.  He  painted  his  pictures  without 
going  into  the  chemistry  of  colors,  or  searching 
into  the  mysteries  of  botany,  to  be  absolutely 
sure  as  to  the  classification  of  the  fibres  which 
made  his  canvas.  His  first  purpose  was  to 
make  an  impression,  and  his  second,  to  fix 
that  impression  inerasably  on  the  mind.  For 
this,  he  trusted  largely  the  work  of  those  who 
had  lived  before  him,  and  he  made  diligent 
and  liberal  use  of  materials  already  accumu 
lated.  He  would  paint  his  own  picture  after 


The  Writer  of  History 


making  the  drawings  and  arranging  his  tints, 
perspective,  lights,  and  shadows. 

Nevertheless,  Mr.  Coffin  was  not  a  man 
accustomed  to  take  truth  at  second  hand. 
His  own  judgment  was  singularly  sane,  and 
he  was  not  accustomed  to  receive  statements 
and  to  devour  them  unflavored  by  the  salt  of 
criticism.  Four  years  of  the  pursuit  of  letters 
amid  arms,  while  passion  was  hottest,  and  men 
were  too  excited  to  care  for  the  exact  truth, 
had  trained  this  cool-headed  scribe  to  critical 
treatment  of  rumors  and  reports.  Further 
more,  he  knew  the  value  of  first  authorities 
and  of  contemporary  writers  and  eye-witnesses. 
He  discounted  much  of  the  writing  done  after 
the  war  in  controversy,  for  political  ends,  for 
personal  vanity,  or  to  cover  up  damaged  repu 
tations.  He  knew  both  the  heating  and  the 
cooling  processes  of  time.  I  remember  when, 
about  1890,  after  he  had  finished  making  a  set 
of  scrap-books  of  soldiers'  letters,  reminis 
cences  and  newspaper  reports  of  the  battles  of 
the  war,  how  heartily  he  laughed  when,  with 
twinkling  eyes,  he  remarked  on  the  tendency 
of  some  old  soldiers  cc  to  remember  a  good 
deal  that  never  happened."  As  his  experi- 


252  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

ence  with  the  pen  deepened,  he  became  more 
rigid  in  his  requirements  as  to  the  quality  of 
the  information  which  his  books  gave.  Those 
who  have  read  especially  his  four  later  volumes 
on  the  war,  will  note  that  at  the  end  of  each 
chapter  he  gives  the  sources  of  authority  for 
his  statements  and  judgments.  In  a  word, 
Carleton  was  a  man  who,  having  mapped  the 
irrigated  country  and  the  stream's  mouth,  reso 
lutely  set  his  face  towards  the  fountains  to  find 
them.  There  is  an  increasing  exactness  and 
care  in  finish,  as  his  works  progressed. 

The  decade  from  1870  to  1880  was  a  busy 
one  for  this  author,  not  only  in  his  home 
study,  in  the  Boston  libraries,  but  also  with 
the  pen  and  with  voice.  The  formation  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  the 
establishments  of  Posts  all  over  the  country, 
and  especially  in  the  Northern  States,  created  a 
demand  for  lectures  on  the  war.  The  soldiers 
themselves  wished  to  study  the  great  subject 
as  a  whole,  while  their  wives  and  children  and 
friends  were  only  too  glad  to  support  the 
movement  for  the  gathering  of  Post  libraries, 
or  the  collection  in  the  town  public  libraries 
of  books  relating  to  the  war.  The  younger 


The  Writer  of  History  253 

generation  needed  instruction  as  to  causes,  as 
well  as  to  results.  Carleton  was  everywhere  a 
favorite,  because  of  his  personality,  as  well  as 
of  his  wide  and  profound  acquaintance,  from 
actual  observation,  of  the  great  movements 
which  consolidated  nations. 

Years  before  becoming  a  war  correspondent, 
Carleton  had  longed  to  be  an  orator  who  could 
sway  thousands  by  the  magic  of  his  eloquence. 
More  than  once,  after  hearing  Edward  Ever 
ett,  Rufus  Choate,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  such 
masters  of  audiences,  he  would  be  unable  to 
sleep,  so  excited  was  he  by  what  he  had  heard, 
and  still  more  by  the  power  evinced  in  a  single 
mind  moving  the  wills  of  thousands.  In  such 
hours  he  longed  to  be  a  great  orator,  and  thought 
no  sacrifice  too  great  to  make  in  order  to  achieve 
success.  As  his  own  opportunities  for  public 
speaking  multiplied,  he  became  a  fluent  and 
convincing  speaker,  with  clear  ideas,  pictur 
esque  language,  and  the  power  of  dramatic 
antithesis.  He  had  that  gift  of  making  pic 
tures  to  the  mind  by  which  a  speaker  can  turn 
the  ears  of  his  auditors  into  eyes.  His  tall 
form,  luminous  face,  impressive  sincerity,  and 
contagious  earnestness  made  delighted  hearers, 


254  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

especially  among  the  soldiers,  who  everywhere 
hailed  him  as  their  defender,  their  faithful  his 
torian,  and  their  steadfast  friend.  To  take 
the  hand  of  Carleton,  after  his  address  or  lec 
ture,  was  a  privilege  for  which  men  and  women 
strove  as  a  high  honor,  and  which  children, 
now  grown  men  and  women,  remember  for  a 
lifetime. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  sound  judgment  of  the 
critic,  Carleton  would  not  be  reckoned,  as  he 
himself  knew  well,  in  the  front  rank  of  orators. 
Neither  in  overmastering  grace  of  person,  in 
power  of  unction,  in  magnetic  conquest  of  the 
mind  and  will,  was  he  preeminent.  When, 
leaving  the  flowery  meadows  of  description  or 
rising  from  the  table-land  of  noble  sentiment 
and  inspiring  precepts,  he  attempted  to  rise  in 
soaring  eloquence,  his  oratorical  abilities  did 
not  match  the  grandeur  of  his  thought  or  the 
splendor  of  his  diction. 

In  the  course  of  his  career  as  a  speaker,  he 
delivered  at  least  two  thousand  lectures  and 
addresses  on  formal  occasions,  besides  unnum 
bered  off  hand  speeches.  Being  one  of  those 
full  men,  it  was  of  him  that  it  could  be  said, 
paratus.  On  whatever  subject  he 


The  Writer  of  History  255 

spoke,  he  was  sure  to  make  it  interesting. 
Besides  reports  of  his  addresses  and  orations 
in  the  newspapers,  several  of  the  most  impor 
tant  have  been  published  in  pamphlet  form. 
At  the  centennial  celebration  at  Boscawen, 
N.  H.,  on  the  4th  of  July,  and  at  the  45th 
anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Rev.  Edward 
Buxton,  at  the  5Oth  anniversary  of  the  Histor 
ical-Genealogical  Society  of  Boston,  and  at 
Nantucket,  before  the  Bostonian  Society  and 
at  the  Congregational  Clubs,  before  Press  As 
sociations,  Legislative  and  Congressional  Com 
mittees,  on  Social  and  Labor  questions,  and  at 
the  Congress  held  in  Chicago  for  the  promo 
tion  of  international  commerce  between  the 
countries  of  North  and  South  America,  Carle- 
ton  reached  first  an  audience,  and  then,  through 
the  types,  wider  circles  of  readers. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

MUSIC    AND     POETRY 

BESIDES  other  means  of  recreation, ^Carle- 
ton  was  happy  in  having  been  from  child 
hood  a  lover  of  music.  In  earlier  life  he  sang  in 
the  church  choir,  under  the  training  of  masters 
of  increasing  grades  of  skill,  in  his  native  village, 
at  Maiden,  and  in  Boston.  He  early  learned 
to  play  upon  keyed  instruments,  the  melodion, 
the  piano,  and  the  organ,  the  latter  being  his 
favorite.  From  this  great  encyclopaedia  of 
tones,  he  loved  to  bring  out  grand  harmonies. 
He  used  this  instrument  of  many  potencies, 
for  enjoyment,  as  a  means  of  culture,  for  the 
soothing  of  his  spirits,  and  the  resting  of  his 
brain.  When  wearied  with  the  monotony  of 
work  with  his  pen,  he  would  leave  his  study, 
as  I  remember,  when  living  in  Boston,  and, 
having  a  private  key  to  Shawmut  Church,  and 
dependent  on  no  assistance  except  that  of  the 
water-motor,  he  would,  for  a  half  hour  or 

256 


Music  and  Poetry  257 

more,  and  sometimes  for  hours,  delight  and 
refresh  himself  with  this  organ,  —  grandest  of 
all  but  one,  in  Boston,  the  city  of  good  organs 
and  organ-makers.  Many  times  throughout 
the  war,  in  churches  deserted  or  occupied, 
alone  or  in  the  public  service,  in  the  soldier's 
camp-church  or  meeting  in  the  open  air,  where- 
ever  there  was  an  instrument  with  keys,  Carle- 
ton  was  a  valued  participant  and  aid  in  worship. 

Religious  music  was  his  favorite,  but  he  de 
lighted  in  all  sweet  melodies.  He  loved  the 
Boston  Symphony  concerts  and  the  grand 
opera.  Among  his  best  pieces  of  writing  were 
the  accounts  of  Wagner's  Parsifal  at  Bayreuth, 
and  the  great  Peace  Jubilee  after  our  civil  war. 
At  most  of  the  great  musical  events  in  Boston, 
he  was  present. 

Shawmut  Church  had  for  many  years  one  of 
the  very  best  quartette  choirs  in  the  city,  sup 
ported  at  the  instrument  by  such  organists  as 
Dudley  Buck,  George  Harris,  Samuel  Carr, 
H.  E.  Parkhurst,  and  Henry  M.  Dunham. 
In  Carleton,  both  voice  and  instrument  found 
so  appreciative  a  hearer,  and  one  who  so  often 
personally  commended  or  appraised  their  ren 
derings  of  a  great  composer's  thought,  or  a 


258  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

heart-touching  song,  that  "  as  well  the  singers 
as  the  players  on  instruments "  were  always 
glad  to  know  how  he  received  their  art  and 
work.  In  Europe,  this  lover  of  sweet  sound 
enjoyed  hearing  the  greatest  vocalists,  and 
those  mightiest  of  the  masses  of  harmony 
known  on  earth,  and  possible  only  in  Eu 
ropean  capitals.  Before  going  to  some  noble 
feast  for  ear  and  soul,  as,  for  example,  Wag 
ner's  rendition  of  his  operas  at  Bayreuth, 
Carleton  would  study  carefully  the  literary 
history,  the  ideas  sought  to  be  expressed  in 
sound,  and  the  score  of  the  composer.  In  his 
grand  description  and  interpretation  of  Parsifal, 
he  likened  it  among  operas  to  the  Jungfrau 
amid  the  Bernese  Alps.  "In  its  sweep  of 
vision,  beauty,  greatness,  whiteness,  glory,  and 
grandeur,  it  stands  alone  ...  to  show  the 
greatness,  the  ideal  of  Wagner,  including  the 
conflict  of  all  time,  —  the  upbuilding  of  individ 
ual  character,  —  and  reaching  on  to  eternity." 

Carleton,  being  a  real  Christian,  necessarily 
believed  in,  and  heartily  supported,  foreign 
missionary  work.  He  saw  in  his  Master, 
Christ,  the  greatest  of  all  missionaries,  and  in 
the  twelve  missionaries,  whom  he  chose  to 


Music  and  Poetry  259 

carry  on  his  work,  the  true  order  and  line  of 
the  kingdom.  "  Apostolical  "  succession  is, 
literally,  and  in  Christ's  intent,  missionary 
succession.  He  read  in  Paul's  account  of  the 
organization  of  the  Christian  Church,  that, 
among  its  orders  and  dignities,  its  officers  and 
personnel,  were  "  first  missionaries."  To  him 
the  only  "  orders "  and  "  succession  "  were 
those  which  propagated  the  Gospel.  He  had 
seen  the  work  of  the  modern  apostles,  sent 
forth  by  American  Christians,  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  first,  west  of  the  Mississippi.  He 
had  later  beheld  the  true  apostles  at  work,  in 
India,  China,  and  Japan.  It  was  on  account 
of  his  seeing  that  he  became  a  still  more  en 
thusiastic  upholder  of  missionary,  or  apostolic, 
work.  He  gave  many  addresses  and  lectures 
in  New  England,  in  loyalty  to  the  mind  of  the 
Master.  As  he  had  been  a  friend  of  the  black 
man,  slave  or  free,  so  also  was  he  ever  a  faith 
ful  defender  of  the  Asiatic  stranger  within  our 
gates.  Against  the  bill  which  practically  ex 
cluded  the  Chinamen  from  the  United  States, 
in  defiance  of  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the 
Burlingame  treaty,  Carleton  spoke  vigorously, 
at  the  meeting  held  in  Tremont  Temple,  in 


260  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Boston,  to  protest  against  the  infamous  Exclu 
sion  bill,  which  committed  the  nation  to  per 
jury.  Carleton  could  never  see  the  justice  of 
stealing  black  men  from  Africa  to  enslave 
them,  of  murdering  red  men  in  order  to  steal 
their  hunting-grounds,  or  of  inviting  yellow 
men  across  the  sea  to  do  our  work,  and  then 
kicking  them  out  when  they  were  no  longer 
needed. 

Carleton  was  instrumental  in  giving  impetus 
to  the  movement  to  found  that  mission  in 
Japan  which  has  since  borne  fruit  in  the  cre 
ation  of  the  largest  and  most  influential  body 
of  Christian  churches,  and  the  great  Doshi- 
sha  University,  in  Kioto.  These  churches 
are  called  Kumi-ai,  or  associated  independent 
churches,  and  out  of  them  have  come,  in  re 
markable  numbers,  preachers,  pastors,  editors, 
authors,  political  leaders,  and  influential  men 
in  every  department  of  the  new  modern  life  in 
Japan.  It  was  at  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Board,  held  in  Pittsburg,  in  the  Third  Presby 
terian  Church  edifice,  October  7-8,  1869,  that 
the  mission  to  Japan  was  proposed.  A  paper 
by  Secretary  Treat  was  read,  and  reported  on 
favorably,  and  Rev.  David  Greene,  who  had 


Music  and  Poetry  261 

volunteered  to  be  the  apostle  to  the  Sunrise 
Empire,  made  an  address.  The  speech  of 
Carleton,  who  had  just  returned  from  Dai 
Nippon,  capped  the  climax  of  enthusiasm,  and 
the  meeting  closed  by  singing  the  hymn, 
"  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 

At  one  of  the  later  meetings  of  the  Board,  at 
Rutland,  Vermont,  the  Japanese  student  Nee- 
sima  pleaded  effectually  that  a  university  be 
founded,  the  history  of  which,  under  the  name 
of  the  One  Endeavor,  or  Doshisha,  is  well 
known.  In  the  same  year  that  Neesima  was 
graduated  from  Amherst  College,  Carleton 
received  from  this  institution  the  honorary  de 
gree  of  Master  of  Arts. 

Carleton  could  turn  his  nimble  pen  to 
rhyme,  when  his  friends  required  verses,  and 
best  when  his  own  emotions  struggled  for 
utterance  in  poetry.  Several  very  creditable 
hymns  were  composed  for  anniversary  occa 
sions  and  for  the  Easter  Festivals  of  Shawmut 
Church. 

Indeed,  the  first  money  ever  paid  him  by  a 
publisher  was  for  a  poem,  — "  The  Old  Man's 
Meditations,"  which  was  copied  into  "  Littell's 
Living  Age."  The  pre-natal  life,  birth,  and 


262  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

growth  of  this  first-born  child  of  Carleton's 
brain  and  heart,  which  inherited  a  "  double 
portion,"  in  both  fame  and  pelf,  is  worth  not 
ing.  In  1852,  an  aged  uncle  of  Mrs.  Coffin, 
who  dwelt  in  thoughts  that  had  not  yet  be 
come  the  commonplace  property  of  our  day, 
being  at  home  in  the  immensities  of  geology 
and  the  infinities  of  astronomy,  made  a  visit  to 
the  home  in  Boscawen,  spending  some  days. 
Carleton  was  richly  fed  in  spirit,  and,  conceiv 
ing  the  idea  of  the  poem,  on  going  out  to 
plough,  put  paper  and  pencil  in  his  pocket. 
As  he  thought  out  line  upon  line,  or  stanza  by 
stanza,  he  penned  each  in  open  air.  At  the 
end  of  the  furrow,  or  even  in  the  middle  of  it, 
he  would  stop  his  team,  lay  the  paper  on  the 
back  of  the  oxen,  and  write  down  the  thought 
or  line.  Finished  at  home  in  the  evenings, 
the  poem  was  read  to  a  friend,  who  persuaded 
the  author  to  test  its  editorial  and  mercantile 
value. 

"  I  shall  never  forget,"  wrote  Mrs.  Coffin, 
October  13,  1896,  "with  what  joy  he  came  to 
me  and  showed  me  the  poetry  in  the  magazine, 
and  a  check  for  $5.00." 

The  last  three  stanzas  are : 


Music  and  Poetry  263 

"  He  sails  once  more  the  sea  of  years 

So  wide  and  vast  and  deep  ! 
He  lives  anew  old  hopes  and  fears  — 
Sweet  tales  of  love  again  he  hears, 
While  flow  afresh  the  scalding  tears, 

For  one  long  since  asleep. 

f*He  sees  the  wrecks  upon  the  shore, 

And  everything  is  drear  ; 
The  rolling  waves  around  him  roar, 
The  angry  clouds  their  torrents  pour, 
His  friends  are  gone  forevermore, 
And  he  alone  is  here. 

"Yet  through  the  gloom  of  gathering  night, 

A  glory  from  afar 
Streams  ever  on  his  fading  sight, 
With  Orient  beams  that  grow  more  bright, 
The  dawn  of  heaven's  supernal  light 

From  Bethlehem's  radiant  star." 

During  the  evenings  of  1892,  Carleton 
guided  a  Reading  Club  of  young  ladies  who 
met  at  his  house.  I  remember,  one  evening, 
with  what  effect  he  read  Lowell's  "  Biglow 
Papers,"  his  eyes  twinkling  with  the  fun  which 
none  enjoyed  more  than  he.  On  another 
evening,  after  reading  from  Longfellow's  "The 
Poet's  Tale,"  "  Ladv  Wentworth,"  and  other 


264  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

poems,  Carleton,  before  retiring,  wrote  a  "  Se 
quel  to  Lady  Wentworth."  It  is  full  of 
drollery,  suggesting  also  what  might  possibly 
have  ensued  if  "  the  judge "  had  married 
"  Maud  Mullen"  Carleton's  poem  tells  of 
the  risks  and  dangers  to  marital  happiness 
which  the  old  magistrate  runs  who  weds  a 
gay  young  girl. 

Carleton  was  ever  a  lover  and  student  of 
poetry,  and  among  poets,  Whittier  was  from 
the  first  his  favorite.  As  a  boy  he  committed 
to  memory  many  of  the  Quaker  poet's  trumpet- 
like  calls  to  duty.  As  a  man  he  always  turned 
for  inspiration  to  this  sweet  singer  of  freedom. 
What  attracted  Carleton  was  not  only  the  in 
tense  moral  earnestness  of  the  Friend,  his 
beautiful  images  and  grand  simplicity,  but  the 
seer's  perfect  familiarity  with  the  New  Hamp 
shire  landscape,  its  mountains,  its  watercourses, 
the  ways  and  customs  of  the  people,  the  local 
legends  and  poetical  associations,  the  sympathy 
with  the  Indian,  and  the  seraphic  delight  which 
he  took  in  the  play  of  light  upon  the  New 
Hampshire  hills.  Not  more  did  Daniel  Web 
ster  study  with  eager  eyes  the  glowing  and  the 
paling  of  the  light  on  the  hilltops,  no  more 


Music  and  Poetry  265 

rapturously  did  Rembrandt  unweave  the  mazes 
of  darkness,  conjure  the  shadows,  and  win  by 
study  the  mysteries  of  light  and  shade,  than 
did  Whittier.  To  Carleton,  a  true  son  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  had  Hmself  so  often  in 
boyhood  watched  and  disciiminated  the  mys 
tery-play  of  light  in  its  variant  forms  at  dawn, 
midday,  and  sunset,  by  moon  and  star  and 
zodiac,  at  the  equinoxes  and  solstices,  the 
imagery  of  his  favorite  poet  was  a  perennial 
delight. 

As  he  ripened  in  years,  Carleton  loved 
poetry  more  and  .more.  He  delighted  in 
Lowell,  and  enjoyed  the  mysticism  of  Emer 
son.  He  had  read  Tennyson  earlier  in  life 
without  much  pleasure,  but  in  ripened  years, 
and  with  refined  tastes,  his  soul  of  music  re 
sponded  to  the  English  bard's  marvellous  num 
bers.  He  became  unspeakably  happy  over 
the  tender  melody  of  Tennyson's  smaller 
pieces,  and  the  grand  harmony  of  "In  Me- 
moriam,"  which  he  thought  the  greatest  poem 
ever  written,  and  the  high-water  mark  of  Intel- 

'  O 

lect  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Carleton  was 
not  only  a  lover  of  music,  but  a  composer. 
When  some  especially  tender  sentiment  in  a 


266  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

hymn  impressed  him,  or  the  re-reading  of  an 
old  sacred  song  kindled  his  imagination  by  its 
thought,  or  moved  his  sensibilities  by  its  smooth 
rhythm,  then  Carleton  was  not  likely  to  rest 
until  he  had  made  a  tune  of  his  own  with  which 
to  express  his  feelings.  Of  the  scores  which 
he  composed  and  sang  at  home,  or  had  sung 
in  the  churches,  a  number  were  printed,  and 
have  had  happy  use. 

To  the  end  of  his  life,  he  seemed  to  present, 
in  his  carriage  and  person,  some  of  that  New 
Hampshire  ruggedness,  and  even  rustic  sim 
plicity,  that  attracted  and  lured,  while  it  foiled 
and  disgusted  those  hunters  of  human  prey 
who,  in  every  large  city,  wait  to  take  in  the 
wayfaring  man,  whether  he  be  fool  or  wise. 
Because  he  wore  comfortable  shoes,  and  cared 
next  to  nothing  about  conformity  to  the  last 
new  freak  of  fashion,  the  bunco  man  was  very 
apt  to  make  a  fool  of  himself,  and  find  that  he, 
and  not  the  stranger,  was  the  victim.  In  Bos 
ton,  which  of  late  years  has  been  so  far  cap 
tured  by  the  Irishman  that  even  St.  Patrick's 
is  celebrated  under  the  guise  of  "  Evacuation 
Day,"  matters  were  not  very  different  from 
those  in  New  York.  Carleton,  while  often 


Music  and  Poetry  267 

conducting  parties  of  young  friends  around 
Copp's  Hill,  and  the  more  interesting  histori 
cal,  but  now  uncanny  houses  of  the  North 
End,  was  often  remarked.  Occasionally  he 
was  recognized  by  the  policeman,  who  would 
inform  suspicious  or  inquiring  fellow  foreigners 
or  adopted  sons  of  the  Commonwealth,  that 
"  the  old  fellow  was  only  a  countryman  in 
town,  and  wouldn't  do  any  harm." 

Lest  some  might  get  a  false  idea,  I  need  only 
state  that  Mr.  Coffin  was  a  man  of  dignified 
dress,  and  scrupulously  neat.  He  was  a  gentle 
man  whose  engaging  presence  might  suggest  the 
older  and  more  altruistic,  rather  than  the  newer 
and  perhaps  brusquer  style  of  manners.  His 
was  a  "  mild  and  magnificent  "  blue  eye  in  which 
so  many,  who  loved  him  so,  liked  to  dwell,  and 
he  had  no  need  to  wear  glasses.  The  only  sign 
of  ornament  about  him  was  his  gold  watch- 
chain  and  cross-bar  in  his  black  vest  button 
hole. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

SHAWMUT    CHURCH 

QHAWMUT  Church,  in  Boston,  stands 
k3  at  the  corner  of  Tremont  and  Brookline 
Streets.  Its  history  is  one  of  unique  interest. 
Its  very  name  connects  the  old  and  new  world 
together.  A  Saxon  monk,  named  Botolph, 
after  completing  his  Christian  studies  in  Ger 
many,  founded,  A.  D.  654,  a  monastery  in  Lin 
colnshire,  on  the  Witham,  near  the  sea,  and 
made  it  a  centre  of  holy  light  and  knowledge. 
He  was  the  friend  of  sailors  and  boat-folk. 
The  houses  which  grew  up  around  the  mon 
astery  became  Botolph's  Town,  or  Boston. 
"  Botolph  "  is  itself  but  another  form  of  boat- 
help,  and  the  famous  tower  of  this  English 
parish  church,  finer  than  many  cathedrals,  is 
crowned  by  an  octagon  lantern,  nearly  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  ground.  It  serves  as 
a  beacon-light,  being  visible  forty  miles  distant, 
and,  as  of  old,  is  the  boat-help  of  Saint  Botolph's 


Shawmut  Church  269 

Town.  This  ecclesiastical  lighthouse  is  famil 
iarly  called  "  Boston  Stump,"  and  overlooks 
Lincolnshire,  the  cradle  of  Massachusetts  his 
tory.  At  Scrooby,  a  few  miles  to  the  west, 
lived  and  worshipped  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and 
Mothers.  From  this  shire,  also,  came  the  Eng 
lish  people  who  settled  at  Shawmut  on  the  iyth 
of  September,  1630. 

The  Indian  name,  Shawmut,  was  that  of  the 
"  place  near  the  neck,"  '  probably  the  present 
Haymarket  Square.  The  three-hilled  penin 
sula  called  Tremont,  or  Boston,  by  the  white 
settlers,  was  connected  with  the  main  land  at 
Roxbury  by  a  long,  narrow  neck  or  causeway. 
The  future  "  South  End  "  was  then  under  the 
waves.  After  about  two  centuries  of  use  as  a 
wagon  road,  this  narrow  strip  between  Boston 
and  Roxbury  —  so  narrow  that,  at  high  tide, 
boys  were  able  to  leap  from  the  foam  of  the 
South  Bay  to  the  spray  of  the  waters  of  the 
Charles  River — was  widened.  Suffolk  Street, 
which  was  one  of  the  first  highways  west  of 
Washington  Street  to  be  made  into  hard  ground, 
was  named  Shawmut  Avenue.  About  the 

1  Other  good  authorities  interpret  Shawmut  as  meaning  "  liv 
ing  waters." 


2jo  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  much  land 
was  reclaimed  from  the  salt  mud  and  marshes 
and  made  ready  for  the  pile-driver,  mason,  and 
builder.  Two  splendid  districts,  the  first  called 
the  "  South  End,"  and  the  second  the  "  Back 
Bay,"  were  created.  Where,  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  War,  British  frigates  lay  at  anchor,  are 
now  Beacon  Street  and  Commonwealth  and 
Massachusetts  Avenues.  Where  the  redcoats 
stepped  into  their  boats  for  disembarkation  at 
the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill,  stretch  the  lovely 
Public  Gardens.  The  streets  running  east  and 
west  in  the  new  districts,  beginning  with  Dover 
and  ending  with  Lenox,  are  named  after  towns 
in  the  Bay  State.  About  midway  among  these, 
as  to  order  and  distance,  are  Brookline  and 
Canton  Streets. 

On  a  chance  space  of  hard  soil  around  Can 
ton  and  Dedham  Streets,  in  this  marshy  re 
gion,  a  suburban  village  of  frame  houses  had 
gathered,  and  here  a  Sunday  school  was  started 
as  early  as  1836.  In  January,  1842,  a  weekly 
prayer-meeting  began  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Samuel  C.  Wilkins.  On  November  20,  1845, 
a  church  was  formed,  with  fifty  members.  In 
the  newly  filled  up  land,  the  pile-driver  was 


Shawmut  Church  27 1 

already  busy  in  planting  forests  of  full-grown 
trees  head  downward.  All  around  were  rising 
blocks  of  elegant  houses,  with  promise  of  im 
posing  civic  and  ecclesiastical  edifices  of  various 
kinds.  In  the  wider  streets  were  gardens, 
parks,  or  ample  strips  of  flower-beds.  This 
was  the  land  of  promise,  and  into  it  pressed 
married  couples  by  the  hundreds,  creating 
lovely  homes,  rearing  families,  and  making  this 
the  choicest  part  of  the  young  city.  For, 
though  "  Boston  town  "  is  as  old  as  Mother 
Goose's  rhymes,  the  municipality  of  Boston 
was,  in  1852,  but  thirty  years  old.  The  con 
gregation  of  Christian  people  which,  on  April 
14,  1849,  to°k  the  name,  as  parish,  of  The 
Shawmut  Congregational  Society,  and,  as  a 
church,  one  month  later,  the  name  of  the  Shaw 
mut  Congregational  Church,  occupied  as  a 
meeting-house  first  a  hall,  then  a  frame  build 
ing,  and  finally  a  handsome  edifice  of  brick, 
which  was  dedicated  on  the  :8th  of  November, 
1852.  This  building  is  now  occupied  by  the 
Every  Day  Church,  of  the  Universalist  denom 
ination.  The  tide  of  prosperity  kept  steadily 
rising.  The  throng  of  worshippers  increased, 
until,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  great  Civil  War, 


272  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

it  was  necessary  to  have  more  room.  The 
present  grand  edifice  on  Tremont  Street  was 
erected  and  dedicated  February  11,  1864; 
the  Rev.  Edwin  Bonaparte  Webb,  who  had 
been  called  from  Augusta,  Maine,  being  the 
popular  and  successful  pastor. 

Boston  was  not  then  noted,  as  she  certainly 
is  now,  for  grandeur  or  loveliness  in  church 
edifices.  Neither  excellence  nor  taste  in  ecclesi 
astical  architecture  was,  before  the  war,  a  strik 
ing  trait  of  the  city  or  the  people.  To-day  her 
church  spires  and  towers  are  not  only  numerous, 
but  are  famed  for  their  variety  and  beauty. 

Fortunately  for  the  future  of  Boston,  the 
people  of  Shawmut  Church  found  a  good  archi 
tect,  who  led  the  van  of  improvement  in  church 
architecture.  The  new  edifice  was  the  first  one 
in  the  city  on  the  early  Lombardy  style  of 
architecture,  and  did  much  to  educate  the  taste 
of  the  people  of  the  newer  and  the  older  town, 
and  especially  those  in  the  fraternity  of  churches 
called  Congregational. 

Both  its  architecture  and  decoration  have 
been  imitated  and  improved  upon  in  the  city 
wherein  it  was  a  pioneer  of  beauty  and  the 
herald  of  a  new  order  of  church  architecture. 


Shawmut  Church  273 

It  is  a  noble  vehicle  of  the  faith  and  feelings  of 
devout  worshippers. 

The  equipment  of  Shawmut  Church  edifice 
made  it  a  very  homelike  place  of  worship,  and 
here,  for  a  generation  or  more  of  Carleton's 
life,  a  noble  company  of  Christians  worshipped. 
The  Shawmut  people  were  noted  for  their 
enterprise,  sociability,  generosity,  and  unity  of 
purpose.  In  this  "South  End"  of  Boston 
was  reared  a  large  proportion  of  the  generation 
which  to-day  furnishes  the  brain  and  social  and 
religious  force  of  the  city  and  suburbs.  In 
Shawmut  Church,  gathered,  week  by  week, 
hundreds  of  those  who,  in  the  glow  of  pros 
perity,  held  common  ambitions,  interests,  and 
hopes.  They  were  proud  of  their  city,  their 
neighborhood,  and  their  church,  yet  were  ever 
ready  to  extend  their  well-laden  hands  in  gifts 
to  the  needy  at  home,  and  to  send  to  those 
far  off,  within  our  own  borders,  and  in  lands 
beyond  sea. 

The  great  fire  in  Boston,  of  which  Carleton 
wrote  so  brilliant  a  description,  which,  begin 
ning  November  9,  1872,  within  a  few  hours 
burned  over  sixty-five  acres  and  reduced 
seventy-five  millions  of  property  to  smoke  and 


274  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

ashes,  gave  the  first  great  blow  to  the  material 
prosperity  of  Shawmut  Church.  Later  came 
the  filling  up,  the  reclamation,  and  building  of 
the  Back  Bay  district.  About  1878,  the  tide 
of  movement  set  to  the  westward,  progressing 
so  rapidly  and  steadily  as  to  almost  entirely 
change,  within  a  decade,  the  character  of  the 
South  End,  from  a  region  of  homes  to  one 
largely  of  business  and  boarding  houses.  Still 
later,  about  1890,  with  the  marvellous  develop 
ment  of  the  electric  motor  and  trolley  cars, 
making  horse  traction  by  rail  obsolete,  the 
suburbs  of  Boston  became  one  great  garden 
and  a  semicircle  of  homes.  Then  Brookline, 
Newton,  and  Dorchester  churches  flourished 
at  the  expense  of  the  city  congregations. 
Shawmut  Church,  having  graduated  hundreds 
of  families,  had,  in  1893,  to  be  reorganized. 

Ot  this  church  Charles  Carleton  Coffin, 
though  not  one  of  the  founders,  was  certainly 
one  of  the  makers.  As  a  member,  a  hearer,  a 
worshipper,  a  teacher,  an  officer,  a  counsellor, 
a  giver  of  money,  power,  and  influence,  his 
name  is  inseparably  associated  with  the  life  of 
Shawmut  Church. 

When  Carleton's  seat  was  vacant,  the  chief 


Shawmut  Church  275 

servant  of  the  church  knew  that  his  faithful 
ally  was  serving  his  Master  elsewhere.  After 
one  of  his  trips  to  Europe,  out  West,  or  down 
South  over  the  old  battle-fields,  to  refresh  his 
memory,  or  to  make  notes  and  photographs 
for  his  books,  the  welcome  given  to  him,  on 
his  return,  was  always  warm  and  lively. 

First  of  all,  Mr.  Coffin  was  a  good  listener. 
This  man,  so  fluent  in  speech,  so  ready  with 
his  pen,  so  richly  furnished  by  long  and  wide 
reading,  and  by  habitual  meditation  and  deep 
thinking,  by  unique  experience  of  times  that 
tried  men's  souls,  knew  also  the  moments 
when  silence,  that  is  golden,  was  better  than 
speech,  even  though  silvern.  These  were  not 
as  the  "  brilliant  flashes  of  silence,"  such  as 
Sidney  Smith  noted  as  delightful  improve 
ments  in  his  friend  "  Tom "  Macaulay ;  for 
Carleton  was  never  a  monopolist  in  conversa 
tion.  Rather,  with  the  prompting  of  a  gen 
erous  nature,  and  as  studied  courtesy  made 
into  fine  art,  he  could  listen  even  to  a  child. 
If  Carleton  was  present,  the  preacher  had  an 
audience.  His  face,  while  beaming  with  en 
couragement,  was  one  of  singular  responsive 
ness.  His  patience,  the  patience  of  one  to 


276  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

whom  concealment  of  feeling  was  as  difficult 
as  for  a  crystal  to  shut  out  light,  rarely  failed. 

In  Japan  there  are  temples,  built  in  memo- 
riam  to  heroes  fallen  in  war.  These  are  named 
Shrines  for  the  Welcome  of  Spirits.  They  are 
lighted  at  sunset.  Like  one  of  these  that  I 
remember,  called  the  Soul-beckoning  Rest,  was 
this  listener,  Carleton,  who  begat  eloquence  by 
his  kindly  gaze.  Nor  was  this  power  to  lift 
up  and  cheer  —  this  winged  help  of  a  great 
soul,  like  that  of  a  mother  bird  under  her 
fledgling  making  first  trial  of  the  air  —  given 
only  to  the  professional  speaker  in  the  pulpit. 
This  ten-talent  layman  was  ever  kindly  help 
ful,  with  ear  and  tongue,  to  his  fellow  holder- 
in-trust  of  the  one,  or  of  the  five,  talents ; 
yes,  even  to  the  little  children  in  Christ's 
kingdom. 

The  young  people  loved  Carleton  because 
he  heard  and  loved  them.  To  have  his  great, 
kindly  eyes  fixed  on  some  poor  soldier,  or 
neighbor  in  distress,  was  in  itself  a  lightening 
of  the  load  of  trouble.  Unlike  those  profes 
sional  or  volunteer  comforters,  who  overwhelm 
by  dumping  a  whole  cart-load  of  condolence 
upon  the  sufferer,  who  is  unable  to  resist  or 


Shawmut  Church  277 

reply,  Carleton  was  often  great  in  his  power  of 
encouraging  silence,  and  of  gentle  sympathy. 

Bacon,  as  no  other  Englishman,  has  com 
pressed  in  very  few  words  a  recipe  for  making 
a  "full,"  a  "ready,"  and  an  "exact"  man. 
Carleton  was  all  these  in  one.  He  was  ever 
full.  In  the  Shawmut  prayer-meeting,  his 
deep,  rich  voice  was  the  admirable  vehicle  of 
his  strong  and  helpful  thoughts.  Being  a  man 
of  intense  conviction,  there  was  earnestness  in 
every  tone.  A  stalwart  in  faith,  he  was  neces 
sarily  optimistic.  A  prophet,  he  was  always 
sure  that  out  of  present  darkness  was  to  break 
forth  grander  light  than  former  days  knew. 
This  world  is  governed  by  our  Father,  and 
God  makes  no  mistakes. 

That  rhetorical  instrument,  the  historical 
present,  which  makes  the  pages  of  his  books 
tell  such  vivid  stories,  he  often  used  with 
admirable  effect  in  the  prayer-room,  impressing 
and  thrilling  all  hearts.  No  little  one  ever 
believed  more  confidently  the  promises  of  its 
parent  than  did  this  little  child  in  humility  who 
was  yet  a  man  in  understanding.  Yet  his  was 
not  blind  credulity.  He  always  faced  the  facts. 
He  was  willing  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  reality, 


278  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

even  though  it  might  cause  much  drilling  of 
the  strata,  with  revelation  of  things  at  first  un 
pleasant  to  know.  I  never  knew  a  man  whose 
piety  rested  less  on  traditions,  institutions,  per 
sons,  things,  or  reputations  taken  for  granted. 
To  keen  intuitions,  he  was  able  to  add  the  riches 
of  experience,  and  his  experience  ever  wrought 
hope.  Hence  the  tonic  of  his  thought  and 
words.  He  dwelt  on  the  mountain-top  of 
vision,  and  yet  he  had  that  combination,  so  rare, 
yet  so  indispensable  in  the  prophet,  —  vision 
and  patience,  even  the  patience  of  service. 

Naturally  his  themes  and  his  illustrations,  so 
pertinent  and  illuminating,  were  taken  largely 
from  history.  It  is  because  he  saw  so  far  and 
so  clearly  down  the  perspective  of  the  past,  that 
he  read  the  future  so  surely.  "  That  which 
hath  been,  is  that  which  shall  be,"  —  but  more. 
"  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways."  To  our 
friend,  history,  of  which  the  cross  of  Christ  was 
the  centre,  was  the  Heavenly  Father's  fullest 
revelation.  Many  are  the  ways  of  theophany, 
— "  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners," 
—  to  one  the  burning  bush,  to  another  the 
Urim  and  Thummin,  to  another  the  dew  on 
the  fleece,  to  one  this,  to  another  that.  To 


Shawmut  Church  279 

our  man  of  the  Spirit,  as  to  the  sage  of  Patmos, 
human  history,  because  moved  from  above, 
was  the  visible  presence  of  God. 

The  war,  which  dissolved  the  old  world  of 
slavery,  sectional  bigotry,  and  narrow  ideals, 
and  out  of  the  mother  liquid  of  a  new  chaos 
shot  forth  fresh  axes  of  moral  reconstruction, 
furnished  this  soldier  of  righteousness  with 
endless  themes,  incidents,  illustrations,  and  sug 
gestions.  Yet  the  emphasis,  both  as  to  light 
and  shading,  was  put  upon  things  Christian  and 
Godlike,  the  phenomena  of  spiritual  courage 
and  enterprise,  rather  than  upon  details  of  blood 
or  slaughter.  Neither  years  nor  distance  seemed 
to  dim  our  fellow  patriot's  gratitude  to  the  brave 
men  who  sacrificed  limb  and  life  for  their  coun 
try.  The  soldierly  virtues,  so  vital  to  the  Chris 
tian,  were  brought  home  to  heart  and  conscience. 
He  showed  the  incarnation  of  truth  and  life  to 
be  possible  even  in  the  camp  and  field. 

Having  been  a  skilled  traveller  in  the  Holy 
Land,  Carleton  frequently  opened  this  "  Fifth 
Gospel "  to  delighted  listeners.  There  hung 
on  the  wall  of  the  "  vestry,"  or  social  prayer- 
room,  above  the  leader's  chair,  a  steel-plate 
picture  of  modern  Jerusalem,  showing  espe- 


280  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

daily  the  walls,  gates,  and  roadways  leading  out 
from  the  city.  Carleton  often  declared  that 
this  print  was  "  an  inspiration  "  to  him.  It 
recalled  not  only  personal  experiences  of  his 
own  journeys,  but  also  the  stirring  incidents  in 
Scripture,  especially  of  the  life  of  Christ.  Hav 
ing  studied  on  the  soil  of  Syria,  the  background 
of  the  parables,  and  possessing  a  genius  for 
topography,  he  was  able  to  unshackle  our 
minds  from  too  close  bondage  to  the  English 
phrase  or  letter,  from  childhood's  imperfect 
imaginations,  and  from  our  crude  Occidental 
fancies.  Many  a  passage  of  Scripture,  long 
held  in  our  minds  as  the  hand  holds  an  un- 
lighted  lantern,  was  often  turned  into  an  imme 
diately  helpful  lamp  to  our  path  by  one  touch 
of  his  light-giving  torch. 

For  many  years,  Carleton  was  a  Bible-class 
teacher,  excelling  in  understanding,  insight, 
explanation,  and  application  of  the  divine 
Word.  Many  to-day  remember  his  teaching 
powers  and  their  enjoyment  at  Maiden  ;  but  it 
was  in  Boston,  at  Shawmut  Church,  that  Mr. 
Coffin  gave  to  this  work  the  fullness  of  his 
strength  and  the  ripeness  of  his  powers. 

Counting  it  one  of  the  noblest  ambitions  of 


Shawmut  Church  281 

a  man's  life  to  be  a  good  teacher,  I  used  to 
admire  Carleton's  way  of  getting  at  the  heart 
of  the  lesson.  His  talent  lay  in  first  drawing 
out  the  various  views  of  the  readers,  and  then 
of  harmonizing  them,  —  even  as  the  lens  draws 
all  rays  to  a  burning-point,  making  fire  where 
before  was  only  scattered  heat.  Carleton  was 
one  of  those  superb  teachers  who  believe  that 
education  is  not  only  putting  in,  but  also  draw 
ing  out.  In  his  class  were  lawyers,  physicians, 
doctors  of  divinity,  principals  of  schools,  heads 
of  families,  besides  various  specimens  of  aver 
age  humanity.  Somehow,  he  contrived,  within 
the  scant  hour  afforded  him,  often  within  a 
half  hour,  to  bestow  not  only  his  own  thought, 
but,  by  powerful  spiritual  induction,  to  kindle 
in  others  a  transforming  force.  After  the 
teaching  had  well  begun,  there  set  in  an  alter 
nating  current  of  intensity  that  wrought  might 
ily  for  the  destruction  of  dead  prejudices,  and 
the  building  up  of  character. 

In  his  use  of  helps  and  commentaries  he  had  a 
profound  contempt  of  those  peddlers  of  pedantry 
who  try  to  make  the  words  of  eternal  truth 
become  merely  the  lingo  of  things  local  and 
temporary.  He  was  fond  of  utilizing  all  that 


Charles  Carleton   Coffin 


the  spade  has  cast  up  and  out  from  the  earth, 
as  well  as  of  consulting  what  the  pen  of  genius 
has  made  so  plain.  He  believed  heartily  in 
that  interpretive,  or  higher  criticism,  which  has 
done  so  much  in  our  days  to  open  the  riches 
of  holy  Scripture.  From  the  very  first,  instead 
of  fearing  that  truth  might  be  injured  by  an 
examination  of  the  dress  in  which  it  was  clothed, 
or  the  packages  in  which  it  was  wrapped,  Carle- 
ton  was  in  hearty  sympathy  with  those  scholars 
and  investigators  who,  by  the  application  of 
literary  canons  to  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  writ 
ings,  have  put  illuminating  difference  between 
traditions  and  the  original  message.  He  be 
lieved  that,  in  the  popular  understanding  of 
many  portions  of  the  Bible,  there  was  much 
confusion,  owing  to  the  webs  which  have  been 
spun  over  the  text  by  men  who  lived  centuries 
and  ages  after  the  original  writers  of  the  in 
spired  word.  Though  he  never  called  himself 
a  scholar,  he  knew  only  too  well  that  Flavius 
Josephus  and  John  Milton  were  the  makers  of 
much  popular  tradition  which  ascribed  to  the 
Bible  a  good  deal  which  it  does  not  contain, 
and  that  there  was  often  difficulty  among  the 
plain  people  in  distinguishing  between  the  an- 


Shawmut  Church  283 

cient  treasure  and  the  wrapping  and  strings 
within  which  it  is  now  enclosed.  Hence  his 
diligent  use  of  some  of  the  strong  books  in 
his  pastor's  and  other  libraries. 

Above  all,  however,  was  his  own  clear,  pene 
trating,  spiritual  insight,  which,  joined  with  his 
rich  experience,  his  literary  instincts,  and  his 
own  gift  of  expression,  made  him  such  a  master 
in  the  art  of  communication.  While  his  first 
use  of  the  Bible  was  for  spiritual  benefit  to 
himself  and  others,  he  held  that  its  study  as 
literature  would  scatter  to  the  wind  the  serious 
objections  of  sceptics  and  unbelievers. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

THE     FREE    CHURCHMAN 

CARLETON  was  a  typical  free  churchman. 
He  was  not  only  so  by  inheritance  and 
environment,  but  because  he  was  master  of  the 
New  Testament.  His  penetrating  acumen 
and  power  to  read  rightly  historical  documents 
enabled  him  to  see  what  kind  of  churches  they 
were  which  the  apostles  founded.  With  the 
open  New  Testament  before  him,  he  did  not 
worry  himself  about  the  validity  of  the  ordina 
tion  of  those  who  should  preach  to  him  or 
administer  the  sacraments,  though  there  was 
no  more  loyal  churchman  and  Christian.  He 
believed  in  the  kind  of  churches  which  were 
first  formed  at  Jerusalem  and  in  the  Roman 
cities  by  the  twelve  whom  Jesus  chose,  over 
which  not  even  the  apostles  themselves  ven 
tured  to  exercise  authority  ;  but  rather,  on  the 
other  hand,  submitted  to  the  congregation,  that 
is,  the  assembled  believers.  In  the  New  Tes- 

284 


The   Free  Churchman  285 

tament,  Carleton  read  that  the  members  of 
the  churches  were  on  the  same  level,  all  being 
equal  before  their  great  Head  and  risen  Lord, 
no  member  having  the  smallest  claim  to  any 
kind  of  authority  over  or  among  his  fellow 
members.  In  such  churches,  organized  to-day 
as  closely  as  possible  after  the  New  Testament 
model,  he  believed,  and  to  such  churches  he 
gave  his  heartiest  support,  while  ever  deeply 
sympathetic  with  his  fellow  Christians  who 
associated  themselves  under  other  methods  of 


government. 


His  strong  faith  in  the  essential  right  and 
truth  held  by  independent  churches  in  frater 
nity,  never  wavered ;  and  this  faith  received 
even  increasing  strength  because  of  his  trust  in 
human  nature  when  moved  from  above.  He 
believed  in  the  constant  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  leading  Christians  unto  the  way  of  all 
truth.  He  thought  the  centuries  to  come 
would  see  a  shedding  off  of  many  things  dog 
matic  theologians  consider  to  be  vital  to  Chris 
tianity,  and  the  closer  apprehension  by  society 
of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  life  and  words.  He 
believed  not  only  that  God  was,  but  that  he 
is.  Though  reared  in  New  England,  he  had 


286  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

little  of  that  provincial  narrowness  which  so 
often  mars  and  cramps  the  minds  of  those  who 
otherwise  are  the  most  agreeable  of  all  Ameri 
cans, —  the  cultivated  New  Englanders.  No 
sermon  so  moved  Carleton,  and  so  kindled 
responsive  radiance  in  his  face,  as  those  which 
showed  that  God  is  to-day  leading  and  guiding 
humanity  and  individuals  as  surely  as  in  the 
age  of  the  burning  bush  or  the  smoking  altar. 
He  believed  that  neither  the  ancient  Jews  nor 
the  early  Christians  had  any  advantages  over 
us  for  spiritual  culture,  or  for  the  foundation 
and  increase  of  their  faith  in  God,  but  rather 
less.  He  heartily  approved  of  whatever  pierced 
sectarian  shams  and  traditional  hypocrisies  and 
revealed  reality. 

Hence  his  coolness  and  impartiality  in  con 
troversy,  whatever  might  be  his  own  strong 
personal  liking.  His  profound  knowledge  of 
human  nature  in  all  its  forms,  not  excepting 
the  clerical,  professional,  and  theological  sort, 
—  especially  when  in  the  fighting  mood,  —  en 
abled  him  to  measure  accurately  the  personal 
equation  in  every  problem,  even  when  masked 
to  the  point  of  self-deception.  His  judicial 
balance  and  his  power  to  see  the  real  point  in 


The  Free  Churchman  287 

a  controversy  made  him  an  admirable  guide, 
philosopher,  and  friend.  His  vital  rather  than 
traditional  view  and  use  of  the  truth,  and  his 
sunny  calm  and  poise,  were  especially  mani 
fested  during  that  famous  period  of  trouble 
which  broke  out  in  that  noble  but  close  corpo 
ration,  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions. 

Through  all  the  subsidiary  skirmishes  con 
nected  with  the  prosecution  of  the  Andover 
professors,  and  the  great  debates  in  the  public 
meetings  of  the  American  Board,  Carleton  was 
in  hearty  sympathy  with  those  opinions  and 
convictions  which  have  since  prevailed.  He 
was  in  favor  of  sending  men  and  women  into 
missionary  fields  who  showed,  by  their  physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual  make-up,  that  they 
were  fitted  for  their  noble  work,  whether  or 
not  their  theology  stood  the  test  of  certain 
arbitrary  standards  in  vogue  with  a  faction  in  a 
close  corporation. 

Carleton  was  never  averse  to  truth  being 
tried  on  a  fair  field,  whether  of  discussion,  of 
controversy  before  courts,  or,  if  necessary,  at 
the  rifle's  muzzle.  He  was  not  one  of  those 
feeble  souls  who  retreat  from  all  agitation. 


288  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

He  had  once  fronted  "  a  lie  in  arms  "  and  was 
accustomed  to  probe  even  an  angel's  profes 
sions.  He  knew  that  in  the  history  of  man 
there  must  often  be  a  storm  before  truth  is  re 
vealed  in  clearness.  No  one  realized  more 
fully  than  he  that,  among  the  evangelical 
churches  holding  the  historic  form  of  Chris 
tianity,  the  part  ever  played  and  perhaps  yet 
to  be  played  by  Congregationalists,  is  that  of 
pioneers.  He  knew  that  out  of  the  bosom  of 
this  body  of  Christians  had  come  very  many 
of  the  great  leaders  of  thought  who  have  so 
profoundly  modified  Christian  theology  in 
America  and  Europe,  and  that  by  Congrega- 
tionalists  are  written  most  of  the  books  shap 
ing  the  vanguard  of  thought  in  America,  and 
he  rejoiced  in  the  fact. 

In  brief,  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  was  neither 
a  "  mean  Yankee,"  nor,  in  his  general  spirit,  a 
narrow  New  Englander.  He  was  not  a  local, 
but  a  genuinely  national  American  and  free 
churchman.  He  believed  that  the  idea  of  the 
people  ruling  in  the  Church  as  well  as  in  the 
State  had  a  historical,  but  not  absolutely  neces 
sary,  connection  with  New  England.  In  his 
view,  the  Congregational  form  of  a  church 


The  Free  Churchman  289 

government  was  as  appropriate  to  the  Middle 
and  Western  States  of  our  country,  as  to  the 
six  Eastern  States.  Ever  ready  to  receive  new 
light  and  to  ponder  a  new  proposition,  he  grew 
and  developed,  as  the  years  went  on,  in  his 
conception  of  the  origin  of  Congregational 
Christianity  in  apostolic  times,  and  of  its  re 
birth  after  the  release  of  the  Bible  from  its 
coffin  of  dead  Latin  and  Greek  into  the  living 
tongues  of  Europe,  among  the  so-called  Ana 
baptists.  Through  his  researches  he  had  long 
suspected  that  those  Christians,  whom  prelates 
and  political  churchmen  had,  besides  murdering 
and  attempting  to  exterminate,  so  vilified  and 
misrepresented,  were  our  spiritual  ancestors 
and  the  true  authors  in  modern  time  of  church 
government  through  the  congregation,  and  of 
freedom  of  the  conscience  in  religion.  He 
often  spoke  of  that  line  of  succession  of 
thought  and  faith  which  he  saw  so  clearly 
traced  through  the  Lollards  and  the  weavers 
of  eastern  England,  the  Dutch  Anabaptists,, 
the  Brownists,  and  the  Pilgrims.  He  gave  his 
hearty  adherence  to  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
demonstration  of  the  truth  as  set  forth  in  an 
article  in  The  New  Worldy  by  the  writer,  in  the 


290  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

following  letter,  written  February  27,  1896, 
only  four  days  before  his  sudden  death  and 
among  the  very  last  fruits  of  his  pen.  Like 
the  editor  who  prints  "  letters  from  corre 
spondents,"  the  biographer  is  "  not  responsible 
for  the  opinions  expressed." 

ALWINGTON,   9  SHAILER   STREET, 

BROOKLIXE,    MASS. 

DEAR  DR.  GRIFFIS  :  —  I  have  read  your  Anabaptist  article, 
—  once  for  my  own  meditation,  and  once  for  Mrs.  Coffin's 
benefit.  I  am  glad  you  have  shown  up  Mode) ,  and  that 
toleration  did  not  begin  with  Roger  Williams.  Your  article 
historically  will  dethrone  two  saints,  —  Williams  and  Lord 
Baltimore.  You  have  rendered  an  invaluable  service  to  his 
tory.  Our  Baptist  and  Catholic  brethren  will  not  thank 
you,  but  the  rest  of  the  world  will.  It  is  becoming  clearer 
every  day  that  the  motive  force  which  was  behind  the  foun 
dations  of  this  Republic  came  from  the  "  Lollards  "  and  the 
f(  Beggars."  I  hope  you  will  give  us  more  such  articles. 

Having  been  for  many  years  an  active  mem 
ber  of  the  Congregational  Club,  of  Boston, 
Carleton  was  in  1890  elected  president,  and 
served  during  one  year.  This  parent  of  the 
fifty  or  more  Congregational  Clubs  scattered 
throughout  the  country  was  organized  in  1869, 
and  has  had  an  eventful  history  of  power  and  in- 


The  Free  Churchman  291 

fluence.  Some  of  the  topics  discussed  during  his 
administration  were  "  Relations  of  the  Church 
to  Politics/'  "  Congregationalism  in  Boston," 
"  Bible  Class  Study,"  and  "  How  shall  the 
Church  adapt  itself  to  modern  needs?"  It  was 
under  his  presidency,  also,  that  the  Boston 
Congregational  Club  voted  unanimously,  Feb 
ruary  24,  1890,  to  appoint  a  committee  to 
obtain  the  necessary  funds  and  erect  a  memorial 
at  Delfshaven  in  honor  of  the  Dutch  Republi 
cans  and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  —  both  hosts 
and  guests.  When  the  suggestion  to  raise 
some  such  memorial,  made  by  the  Hon.  S.  R. 
Thayer,  American  Minister  at  the  Hague,  was 
first  read  in  the  meeting  of  the  Club  in  Octo 
ber,  1889,  and  a  motion  made  to  refer  it  to  the 
Executive  Committee,  Carleton  seconded  and 
supported  the  motion  with  a  speech  in  warm 
commendation.  He  was  among  the  very  first 
to  make  and  pay  a  subscription  in  money. 
The  enterprise  still  awaits  the  happy  day  of 
completion,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  enter 
prise  lies,  by  its  own  vote,  upon  the  Boston 
Congregational  Club.  The  Forefathers'  Day 
celebration  of  the  Club  was  of  uncommon  inter 
est  during  the  year  of  Mr.  Coffin's  presidency. 


292  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

A  leading  feature  was  the  display  on  a  screen  of 
views  of  Pilgrim  shrines  in  England  which  Mr. 
Coffin  had  obtained  on  a  visit  two  years  before. 
Except  his  membership  in  the  various  his 
torical  and  learned  societies  and  in  religious 
organizations,  Mr.  Coffin  was  not  connected 
with  secret,  benevolent,  social,  or  mysterious 
brotherhoods.  He  did  not  believe  in  secret 
fraternities,  but  rather  considered  that  these 
had  much  to  do  with  weakening  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  with  making  men  satisfied  with  a 
lower  standard  of  ethics  and  human  sociability 
than  that  taught  by  Jesus.  He  held  that  the 
brotherhood  instituted  of  Christ,  in  an  open 
chapter  of  twelve,  and  without  secrets  of  any 
kind,  was  sufficient  for  him  and  for  all  men. 
More  than  once,  when  going  abroad,  or  travel 
ling  in  the  various  parts  of  his  own  country, 
which  is  nearly  as  large  as  all  Europe,  he  was 
advised  to  join  a  lodge  and  unite  himself  with 
one  or  more  of  the  best  secret  fraternities,  for 
assistance  and  recognition  while  travelling.  All 
these  kind  invitations  he  steadily  declined. 
He  was  not  even  a  member  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  though  often  invited 
to  join  a  Post.  He  never  became  a  member, 


The  Free  Churchman  293 

for  he  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  secrecy, 
even  for  this  organization,  though  he  was  very 
often  an  honored  guest  at  their  public  meetings. 
The  Church  of  Christ  was  to  Carleton  an  all- 
sufficient  society  and  power. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

CITIZEN,    STATESMAN,    AND    REFORMER 

ONE  can  hardly  imagine  a  better  school  for 
the  training  of  a  good  American  citizen 
than  that  which  Carleton  enjoyed.  By  inherit 
ance  and  birth  in  a  New  Hampshire  village, 
he  knew  "  the  springs  of  empire."  By  actual 
experience  of  farming  and  surveying  in  a  tran 
sition  era  between  the  old  ages  of  manual  labor 
and  the  new  aeon  of  inventions,  he  learned  toil, 
its  necessity,  and  how  to  abridge  and  guide  it 
by  mind.  In  the  acquaintance,  while  upon  a 
Boston  newspaper,  with  public  men,  and  all 
kinds  of  people,  in  the  unique  experiences  as 
war  correspondent,  in  wide  travel  and  observa 
tion  around  the  whole  world,  in  detailed  studies 
of  new  lands  and  life  in  the  Northwest,  in 
reading  and  research  in  great  libraries,  and  in 
the  constant  discipline  of  his  mind  through 
reflection,  his  knowledge  of  man  and  nature, 

of  society  and  history,  was  at  first  hand. 

294 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and   Reformer     295 

Intensely  interested  in  politics  from  boy 
hood,  Carleton  sought  no  public  office. 

When,  in  his  early  manhood,  he  revolved  in 
his  mind  the  question  of  attempting  this  or  that 
career,  he  may  have  thought  of  entering  the 
alluring  but  thorny  path  of  office-seeking  and 
"practical"  politics.  It  cannot  be  said  that 
his  desire  for  public  emolument  lasted  very 
long.  He  deliberately  decided  against  a  po 
litical  career.  Even  if  the  exigencies  of  the 
moment  had  not  tended  to  forbid  the  flight  of 
his  ambition  in  this  direction,  there  were  other 
reasons  against  it. 

He  was  a  school  commissioner  in  Maiden, 
faithfully  attending  to  *the  details  of  his  duty 
during  two  years.  The  report  of  his  work  was 
given  in  a  pamphlet.  As  we  have  seen,  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  when  in  Washing 
ton,  he  sought  for  a  little  while  government 
employment  in  one  of  the  departments,  but 
gave  up  the  quest  when  the  larger  field  of  war 
correspondent  invited  him.  He  never  sought 
an  elective  office,  but  when  his  fellow  citizens 
in  Boston  found  out  how  valuable  a  member 
of  the  Commonwealth  he  was,  so  rich  in  public 
spirit  and  so  well  equipped  to  be  a  legislator, 


296  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

he  was  made  first,  for  several  terms,  a  Represent 
ative,  and  afterwards,  for  one  term,  a  Senator, 
in  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  Carleton 
sat  under  the  golden  codfish  as  Representative 
during  the  years  1884  and  1885,  and  under  the 
gilded  dome  as  Senator,  in  1890. 

Faithful  to  his  calling  as  a  maker  of  law, 
Carleton  was  abundant  in  labors  during  his 
three  terms,  interested  in  all  that  meant  weal 
or  woe  to  the  Commonwealth  ;  yet  we  have 
only  room  to  speak  of  the  two  or  three  particu 
lar  reforms  which  he  inaugurated. 

Until  the  year  1884,  Boston  was  behind 
some  of  the  other  cities  of  the  Union,  notably 
Philadelphia,  in  requiring  the  children  in  the 
public  schools  to  provide  their  own  text-books. 
This  caused  the  burden  of  taxation  for  educa 
tion,  which  is  "  the  chief  defence  of  nations," 
to  fall  upon  the  men  and  women  who  reared 
families,  instead  of  being  levied  with  equal 
justice  upon  all  citizens.  Carleton  prepared  a 
bill  for  furnishing  free  text-books  to  the  public 
schools  of  Boston,  such  as  had  been  done  in 
Philadelphia  since  1819.  Despite  considerable 
opposition,  some  of  it  on  the  part  of  teachers 
who  had  severe  notions, —  bred  chieflv  bv  local 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and  Reformer     297 

Boston  precedent,  which  had  almost  the  force 
of  religion,  —  Carleton  had  the  happiness  of 
seeing  the  bill  passed. 

The  administration  of  municipal  affairs  in 
the  "  Hub  of  the  Universe,"  during  the  seven 
ties  and  early  eighties  of  this  proud  century, 
was  one  not  at  all  creditable  to  any  party  nor 
to  the  city  that  prides  itself  on  being  distinctive 
and  foremost  in  fame.  The  development  of 
political  life  in  New  England  had  been  after 
the  model  of  the  town.  Municipal  organiza 
tion  was  not  looked  upon  with  much  favor 
until  well  into  this  century.  While  the  popu 
lation  of  the  Middle  States  was  advancing  in 
the  line  of  progress  in  government  of  cities, 
the  people  in  the  Eastern  States  still  clung 
to  the  model  of  the  town  meeting  as  the  perfec 
tion  of  political  wisdom  and  practice.  This  was 
done  in  the  case  of  Boston,  even  when  several 
tens  of  thousands  of  citizens,  dwelling  as  one 
political  union,  made  the  old  system  antiquated. 

Before  the  opening  of  the  i9th  century,  all 
the  municipally  incorporated  cities  of  the  North 
ern  United  States,  excepting  Albany,  lay  along 
a  line  between  the  boundaries  of  Manhattan 
Island  and  Philadelphia.  It  was  not  until 


298  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

1830  that  "Boston  town"  became  a  city. 
For  fifty  years  afterwards,  the  development  of 
municipal  enterprise  was  in  the  direction  of 
superficial  area,  rather  than  according  to  fore 
sight  or  genius.  It  is  very  certain  that  the 
fathers  of  that  epoch  did  not  have  a  very  clear 
idea  of,  certainly  did  not  plan  very  intelligently 
for,  the  vast  growth  of  our  half  of  the  century. 
Added  to  this  ultra  conservatism,  came  the 
infusion,  with  attendant  confusion,  of  Ireland's 
sons  and  daughters  by  myriads,  a  flood  of 
Scotch-Irish  and  other  nationalities  from  Can 
ada,  and  the  flocking  of  large  numbers  of  native 
Americans  from  the  rural  districts  of  New 
England.  Nearly  all  of  the  newcomers  usu 
ally  arrived  poor  and  with  intent  to  become 
rich  as  quickly  as  honesty  would  allow,  while 
not  a  few  were  without  limit  of  time  or  scruple 
of  conscience  to  hinder  their  plans.  The 
Americans  of  "culture  and  character"  were 
usually  too  busy  in  making  money  and  getting 
clothes,  houses,  and  horses,  to  attend  to  "pol 
itics,"  while  Patrick  was  only  too  glad  and 
ready  to  develop  his  political  abilities.  So  it 
came  to  pass  that  a  ring  of  powerful  political 
"  bosses  "  —  if  we  may  degrade  so  good  and 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and   Reformer     299 

honest  a  Dutch  word  —  was  formed.  Saloons, 
gambling- houses  and  dance- halls  multiplied, 
while  an  oligarchy,  ever  grasping  for  more 
power,  nullified  the  laws  and  trampled  the  stat 
utes  under  its  feet.  The  sins  of  drunkenness 
and  bribery  among  policemen,  who  were  simply 
the  creatures  for  the  most  part  of  corrupt  poli 
ticians,  were  too  frequent  to  attract  much  notice. 
That  conscientious  wearer  of  the  blue  and  the 
star  who  enforced  the  laws  was  either  discharged 
or  sent  on  some  unimportant  suburban  beat. 
The  relations  between  city  saloons  and  politics 
were  as  close  as  hand  and  glove,  palm  and  coin. 
The  gambler,  the  saloon-keeper,  the  masters  of 
houses  of  ill-fame,  were  all  in  favor  of  the  kind 
of  municipal  government  which  Boston  had  had 
for  a  generation  or  more. 

An  American  back  is  like  the  camel's,  — 
able  to  bear  mighty  loads,  but  insurgent  at  the 
last  feather.  So,  in  Boston,  the  long-outraged 
moral  sense  of  the  people  suddenly  revolted. 
A  Citizens'  Law  and  Order  League  was  formed, 
and  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  elected  to  the 
House  of  Representatives  for  the  session  ot 
1885,  was  asked  to  be  their  banner  bearer  in 
reform.  With  the  idea  of  destroying  partisan- 


300  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ship  and  making  the  execution  of  the  laws 
non-partisan,  Carleton  prepared  a  bill,  which 
was  intended  to  take  the  control  of  the  police 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Mayor  and  Common 
Council  of  the  city,  and  to  put  it  into  the 
hands  of  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth. 
When  Mr.  Coffin  began  this  work,  Boston 
had  a  population  of  412,000  souls.  From  the 
"  Boston  bedrooms,"  that  is,  the  suburban 
towns  in  five  counties,  one  hundred  thousand 
or  more  were  emptied  every  day,  making  over 
half  a  million  people.  In  this  city  there  was 
an  array  of  forces  all  massed  against  any  legis 
lation  restricting  their  power,  while  eager  and 
organized  to  extend  it.  These  included  2,850 
licensed  liquor  sellers,  and  1,300  unlicensed 
places,  besides  222  druggists;  all  of  which,  and 
whom,  helped  to  make  men  drunk.  To  sup 
ply  the  thirsty  there  were  within  the  city  limits 
three  distilleries  and  seventeen  breweries.  To 
show  the  nature  of  the  oligarchy,  we  have  only 
to  state  that  there  were  twenty-five  men  who 
had  their  names  as  bondsmen  on  no  fewer 
than  1,030  licenses,  and  that  eight  men  signed 
the  bonds  of  610  licenses.  These  "bonds 
men  "  of  one  sort  controlled  the  votes  of  from 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and  Reformer     301 

15,000  to  20,000  bondsmen  of  a  lower  sort. 
The  liquor  business  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  the 
great  incentive  to  lawlessness,  helping  to  make 
Boston  a  place  of  shame.  Ten  thousand  per 
sons  and  $75,000,000  capital  were  employed 
in  work  mostly  useless  and  wicked. 

"  Boston's  devil-fish  was  dragging  her  down." 
The  Sunday  laws  were  set  at  defiance.  The 
clinking  of  glasses  could  not  only  be  distinctly 
heard  as  one  went  by,  but  the  streams  of 
young  men  openly  filed  in.  The  laws,  requir 
ing  a  certain  distance  between  the  schoolhouse 
and  the  saloon,  were  persistently  violated.  Of 
two  hundred  saloons  visited  by  Carleton,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  had  set  the  law  at 
defiance.  While  six  policemen  were  needed 
in  one  Salvation  Army  room,  to  keep  the 
saints  and  sinners  quiet,  often  there  would  be 
not  one  star  or  club  in  the  saloons. 

Carleton  began  by  arming  himself  with  the 
facts.  He  visited  hundreds  of  the  tapster's 
quarters  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  In  some 
cases  he  actually  measured,  with  his  own  hands 
and  a  surveyor's  chain,  the  distance  between 
the  schoolhouse  and  the  home-destroyer.  He 
talked  with  scores  of  policemen.  He  then 


302  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

prepared  his  bill  and  reported  it  in  the  Judi 
ciary  Committee,  the  members  of  which,  about 
that  time,  received  a  petition  in  favor  of  a  non- 
partisan  metropolitan  board  of  police  com 
missioners,  in  order  to  secure  a  much  better 
enforcement  of  law.  On  this  petition  were 
scores  of  names,  which  the  world  will  not  will 
ingly  let  die.  Yet,  after  reading  the  petition, 
seven  of  the  eleven  members  of  the  Committee 
were  opposed  to  the  bill,  and  so  declared  them 
selves.  Carleton  was  therefore  obliged  to 
transfer  the  field  of  battle  to  the  open  House. 
When  he  counted  noses  in  the  Legislature,  he 
found  that  in  the  double  body  there  were  but 
four  men  who  were  heartily  in  favor  of  the 
apparently  unpopular  reform.  The  bill  lay 
dormant  for  many  weeks.  Almost  as  a  matter 
of  course,  the  Sunday  newspapers  were  bitterly 
hostile  to  it.  They  informed  their  readers, 
more  than  once,  that  the  reform  was  dead. 
By  hostile  politicians  the  bill  was  denounced 
as  "  infamous." 

Nevertheless,  the  minority  of  four  nailed 
their  colors  to  the  mast,  "  determined,  it  need 
be,  to  sink,  but  not  to  surrender."  Behind 
them  were  the  State  constitution,  the  statutes 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and   Reformer     303 

of  the  General  Court,  and  the  whole  history 
of  Massachusetts,  whose  moral  tonic  has  so 
often  inspired  the  beginners  of  better  times  in 
American  history.  When  the  day  came  for 
discussion  of  the  bill,  in  public,  Mr..  Coffin 
made  a  magnificent  speech  in  its  favor,  March 
17,  1885.  Despite  fierce  opposition,  the  bill 
finally  became  law,  creating  a  new  era  of  hope 
and  reform  in  the  City  on  the  Bay. 

In  a  banquet  given  by  the  Citizens'  Law 
and  Order  League,  at  the  Hotel  Vendome, 
to  talk  over  the  victory  of  law,  about  two 
hundred  ladies  and  gentlemen  were  present. 
Among  them  were  President  Capen,  of  Tufts 
College,  president  of  the  League,  and  such 
grand  citizens  as  Rufus  Frost,  Jonathan  A. 
Lane,  and  Dr.  Henry  Martin  Dexter;  the 
Honorable  Frank  M.  Ames,  Senator,  and 
Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  Representative,  being 
guests  of  honor.  Carleton,  being  called  upon 
for  an  address,  said,  among  other  things  : 

"  There  are  no  compensations  in  life  more 
delightful  and  soul-satisfying  than  those  which 
come  from  service  and  sacrifice  for  the  welfare 
of  our  fellow  men.  ...  It  has  never  troubled 
me  to  be  in  the  minority.  If  you  want  real 


304  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

genuine  pleasure  in  a  battle,  go  in  with  the 
minority  on  some  great  principle  affecting  the 
welfare  of  society." 

In  his  speech  he  had  said  :  "  The  moral  sense 
of  this  community  is  a  growing  quantity,  and  no 
political  party  that  ignores  or  runs  counter  to 
the  lofty  ideal  can  long  stand  before  us." 

The  Honorable  Alanson  M.  Beard  had 
already  paid  a  merited  tribute  when  he  said 
that  Carleton  had  "  lifted  up  this  question 
above  the  domain  of  party  politics  into  the 
higher  realm  of  morals,  where  it  belonged." 

No  one  who  knew  Carleton  need  be  told 
that,  during  all  these  weeks  of  uncertainty  of 
issue,  he  was  in  constant  prayer  to  God  for 
light,  guidance,  and  success.  From  all  over 
the  Commonwealth  came  letters  of  cheer  and 
sympathy,  especially  from  the  mothers  whose 
sons  in  Boston  were  tempted  beyond  measure 
because  of  the  non-enforcement  of  law.  To 
these,  and  to  the  law-loving  editors  of  the 
newspaper  press,  the  statesman  afterwards  re 
turned  his  hearty  thanks. 

Carleton  was  a  man  ever  open  to  conviction. 
To  him,  truth  had  no  stereotyped  forms.  His 
mind  never  became  a  petrifaction,  but  was  ever 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and  Reformer     305 

growing  and  vital.  At  first  he  was  opposed  to 
civil  service  reform  ;  but  after  a  study  of  the 
subject,  he  was  convinced  of  its  reasonableness 
and  practicality,  and  became  ever  afterwards  a 
hearty  upholder  of  this  method  of  selecting  the 
servants  of  government,  in  the  nation,  the 
State,  and  the  city. 

He  was  a  friend  of  woman  suffrage.  On 
the  occasion  of  a  presentation  of  a  petition  from 
twenty  thousand  Massachusetts  women,  though 
four  thousand  of  them  had  petitioned  against 
the  proposed  measure,  he  made  a  strong  and 
earnest  plea  for  granting  the  ballot  to  women. 
Among  other  things  he  said :  "  No  fire  ever 
yet  was  lighted  that  could  reduce  to  ashes  an 
eternal  truth."  He  believed  that  women,  as 
well  as  men,  form  society,  and  "  the  people,, 
who  were  the  true  source,  under  God,  of  all 
authority  on  earth,"  were  not  made  up  wholly 
of  one  sex.  He  quoted  from  that  pamphlet, 
"  De  Jure  Regni,"  published  by  George  Bu 
chanan  in  1556,  which  was  burned  by  the 
hangman  in  St.  Paul's  churchyard,  —  where  so 
many  Bibles  and  other  good  books  have  been 
burned,  —  which  declared  that  "the  will  of  the 
people  is  the  only  legitimate  source  of  power." 


306  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

He  declared  that  the  "  lofty  ideal  of  republican 
ism  is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  Of  women, 
he  said,  "  Wherever  they  have  walked,  there 
has  been  less  of  hell  and  more  of  heaven." 

After  an  ex-mayor,  in  his  speech,  had  referred 
to  Carleton's  bill,  which  changed  the  appointing 
power  of  the  police  from  the  Mayor  and  Com 
mon  Council,  and,  by  putting  it  in  the  hands  of 
the  Governor  and  Executive  Council,  placed  it 
on  the  same  foundation  as  the  judiciary,  as 
"  that  infamous  police  law,"  Carleton  said : 
"  Make  a  note  of  it,  statesmen  of  the  future. 
Write  it  down  in  your  memoranda,  politicians 
who  indulge  the  expectation  that  you  can  ride 
into  power  on  the  vices  of  society,  —  that  moral 
forces  are  marshalling  as  never  before  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  human  race,  and  that  the  women  of 
this  country  are  beginning  to  wield  them  to 
shape  legislation  on  all  great  moral  questions. 
Refreshing  as  perfume-laden  breezes  from  the 
celestial  plains  were  the  words  of  encouragement 
and  sympathy  that  came  to  me  from  mothers 
in  Berkshire,  from  the  Cape,  from  all  over  the 
Commonwealth." 

In  1890,  in  the  Massachusetts  Senate,  there 
was  an  attempt  made  to  divide  the  town  of 


Citizen,  Statesman,  and  Reformer     307 

Beverly.  Into  this,  as  into  so  many  of  the 
pleasant  towns,  villages,  and  rural  districts 
around  Boston,  wealthy  Bostonians  had  come 
and  built  luxurious  houses  upon  the  land  which 
they  had  bought.  Not  content  with  being 
citizens  in  the  place  where  they  were  newcom 
ers,  —  thus  securing  release  from  heavier  taxes 
in  Boston,  where  they  lived  in  winter,  —  they 
wished  to  separate  themselves,  in  a  most  un- 
American  and  un-democratic  manner,  from  the 
older  inhabitants  and  "  common  "  people,  and 
to  make  a  new  settlement  with  a  separate  local 
government  for  those  who  formed  a  particular 
class  living  in  luxury.  Carleton,  hostile  to  the 
sordid  and  unsocial  spirit  lurking  in  the  bill, 
vigorously  opposed  the  attempted  mutilation 
of  an  old  historic  town,  and  the  isolation  of 
"  Beverly  Farms."  He  opposed  it,  because  it 
would  be  a  bad  precedent,  and  one  in  favor  of 
class  separation  and  class  distinction.  His 
speech  embodies  a  masterly  historical  sketch  of 
the  town  form  of  government. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

A   SAVIOUR   OF   HUMAN   LIFE 

WHILE  Carleton  enjoyed  that  kind  of 
work,  ethical,  literary,  benevolent,  and 
political,  which  appealed  to  sentiment  and 
aroused  sympathy  to  the  burning  point,  he 
was  an  equally  faithful  coworker  with  God 
and  man  in  enterprises  wholly  unsentimental. 
He  who  waits  through  eternity  for  his  crea 
tures  to  understand  his  own  creation,  knows 
how  faithfully  good  men  can  cooperate  with 
him  in  plans  which  only  unborn  and  succeed 
ing  generations  can  appreciate. 

Out  of  a  thousand  illustrations  we  may  note, 
along  the  lines  of  electric  science,  the  names  of 
Professor  Kinnersly,  'who  probably  first  led 
Franklin  into  that  line  of  research  which  ena 
bled  him  to  "  snatch  the  sceptre  from  tyrants 
and  the  lightning  from  heaven,"  and  Profes 
sor  Moses  Gerrish  Farmer,  who  broke  new 
paths  into  the  once  unknown.  As  early  as 
308 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life  309 

1859,  Mr.  Farmer  lighted  his  whole  house 
with  electric  lights,  and  blew  up  a  little  ship  by 
a  tiny  submarine  torpedo  in  1847,  anc^  m  tne 
same  year  propelled  by  electricity  a  car  carry 
ing  passengers.  Yet  neither  of  these  names  is 
found  in  the  majority  of  ordinary  cyclopedias 
or  books  of  reference. 

Familiar  with  such  facts,  both  by  a  general 
observation  of  life,  and  by  a  special  and  critical 
study  of  the  literature  of  patents  and  inven 
tions,  Carleton  felt  perfectly  willing  to  devote 
himself  to  a  work  that  he  knew  would  yield 
but  little  popular  applause,  even  when  victory 
should  be  won,  —  the  abolition  of  railway  level 
or  "  grade  "  crossings. 

During  a  brief  morning  call  on  Carleton, 
shortly  after  he  had  been  elected  Senator  in 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  for  the  session  of 
1890,  I  asked  him  what  he  proposed  especially 
to  do.  "  Well,"  said  he,  «  I  think  that  if  I 
can  get  all  grade  crossings  abolished  from  the 
railroads  of  the  whole  Commonwealth,  it  will 
be  a  good  winter's  work." 

Forthwith  he  set  himself  to  study  the  prob 
lem,  to  master  resources  and  statistics,  to  learn 
the  relation  between  capital  invested  and  prof- 


Charles   Carleton   Coffin 


its  made  by  the  railway  corporation,  and  espe 
cially  to  measure  the  forces  in  favor  of  and  in 
opposition  to  the  proposed  reform. 

About  this  time,  the  chief  servant  of  Shaw- 
mut  Church  was  studying  an  allied  question. 
While  the  "  grade  crossing  "  slew  its  thousands 
of  non-travelling  citizens,  the  freight-car,  with 
its  link-and-pin  coupling,  its  block-bumpers, 
its  hand-brakes,  its  slippery  roofs,  its  manifold 
shiftings  over  frogs  and  switches,  slew  its  tens 
of  thousands  of  railway  operatives.  On  the 
grade  crossings,  the  victims  were  chiefly  old, 
deaf,  or  blind  men  and  women,  cripples,  chil 
dren,  drunkards,  and  miscellaneous  people. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  freight-cars  killed  al 
most  exclusively  the  flower  of  the  country's 
manhood.  The  tens  of  thousands  of  hands 
crushed  between  bumpers,  of  arms  and  legs  cut 
off,  of  bodies  broken  and  mangled,  were,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  those  of  healthy,  intelligent 
men,  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  fifty, 
and  usually  breadwinners  for  whole  families. 
The  slaughter  every  year  was  equal  to  that  of 
a  battle  at  Waterloo  or  Gettysburg.  Fairy 
tales  about  monsters  devouring  human  beings, 
legends  of  colossal  dragons  swallowing  annually 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life  311 

their  quota  of  fair  virgins,  were  insignificant 
expressions  of  damage  done  to  the  human  race 
compared  to  that  annual  tribute  poured  into 
the  insatiable  maw  of  the  railway  Moloch. 
Every  great  line  of  traffic,  like  the  Pennsyl 
vania  or  New  York  Central  Railway,  ate  up  a 
man  a  day.  Sometimes,  between  sunrise  and 
sunset,  a  single  road  made  four  or  five  widows, 
with  a  profusion  of  orphans. 

Yet  two  men,  each  of  the  name  of  Coffin, 
and  each  of  that  superb  Nantucket  stock 
which  has  enriched  our  nation  and  carried  the 
American  flag  to  every  sea,  were  working  in 
the  West  and  the  East,  for  the  abolition  of 
legalized  slaughter.  Lorenzo  Coffin,  of  Iowa, 
a  distant  cousin  of  Carleton's,  whom  so  many 
railway  men  always  salute  as  "  father,"  had 
been  for  years  trying  to  throttle  the  two  twin 
enemies  of  the  railway  man,  alcohol,  and  the 
freight-car  equipment  of  link-and-pin  coupler 
and  hand-brake.  It  was  he  who  agitated  un 
ceasingly  for  national  protection  to  railway 
men,  and  to  the  brakeman  especially.  He 
and  his  fellow  reformers  asked  for  a  law  com 
pelling  the  use  of  a  brake  which  would  relieve 
the  crew  from  such  awful  exposure  and  fool- 


3  i  2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

hardy  risk  of  life  on  the  icy  roofs  of  the  cars  in 
winter,  and  for  couplers  which,  by  abolishing 
the  iron  link  and  pin,  would  save  the  constant 
and  almost  certain  crushing  of  the  hands  which 
the  shifting  of  the  cars  compelled  when  cou 
pled  in  the  old  way. 

For  a  long  time  Lorenzo  Coffin's  efforts 
seemed  utterly  useless.  This  was  simply  be 
cause  human  life  was  cheaper  than  machinery, 
and  because  public  opinion  on  this  particular 
subject  had  not  yet  become  Christian.  It  was 
Jesus  Christ  who  raised  the  value  of  both  the 
human  body  and  the  human  soul,  abolished 
gladiatorial  shows,  raised  up  hospitals,  created 
cemeteries,  even  for  the  poorest,  made  life 
insurance  companies  possible,  and  put  even 
such  value  on  human  life  as  could  be  recovered 
in  action  by  law  from  corporations  which  mur 
der  men  through  sordid  economy  or  criminal 
carelessness.  Lorenzo  Coffin  wrought  for  the 
application  of  Christianity  to  railway  men. 
When  finally  the  law  was  passed,  compelling 
safety-couplers  and  air-brakes,  and  when,  in 
the  constitution  of  New  York  State,  the  limit 
of  five  thousand  dollars  replevin  for  a  human 
life  destroyed  by  a  corporation  was  abolished, 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life 


3*3 


and  no  limit  set,  there  were  two  new  triumphs 
of  Christianity.  In  these  phenomena,  we  see 
only  further  illustrations  of  that  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  proclaimed  by  Christ,  and  illustrated 
both  in  the  hidden  leaven  and  the  phenomenal 
mustard-seed. 

A  sermon  by  the  pastor  of  Shawmut  Church, 
on  "  Lions  that  devour,"  depicted  the  great 
American  slaughter-field.  It  set  forth  the 
array  of  figures  as  given  him  in  the  reports  of 
the  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission,  sent 
by  his  friend,  the  Hon.  Augustus  Schoon- 
maker,  of  Kingston,  New  York,  and  then  in 
Washington,  one  of  the  Commissioners.  There 
was  considerable  surprise  and  criticism  from 
among  his  auditors,  and  the  facts  as  set  forth 
were  doubted.  There  were  present,  as  usual 
on  Sunday  mornings  in  Shawmut  Church,  men 
of  public  affairs,  presidents  of  banks,  the  col 
lector  of  the  port  of  Boston,  a  general  in  the 
regular  army,  a  veteran  colonel  of  volunteers, 
several  officers  of  railway  companies,  and,  most 
of  all,  Mr.  Charles  Carleton  Coffin.  He  and 
they  thought  the  statements  given  of  the 
slaughter  of  young  men  on  railroads  in  the 
United  States  must  be  incredible.  Even  Carle- 


3  14  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

ton  had  not  then  informed  himself  concerning 
that  great  field  of  blood  extending  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  and  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the 
Gulf,  which  every  year  was  strewn  with  the 
corpses  or  mangled  limbs  of  twenty-five  thou 
sand  people.  He  thought  his  friend  in  the 
pulpit  must  be  mistaken,  and  frankly  told 
him  so. 

On  the  following  Sunday,  having  received 
the  figures  for  the  current  year,  from  the  best 
authority  in  Washington,  the  preacher  was  able 
to  say  that  his  statements  of  last  Sunday  had 
been  below  reality,  and  that,  instead  of  exag 
gerating,  he  had  underestimated  the  facts. 
This  gave  Mr.  Coffin,  as  he  afterwards  con 
fessed,  fresh  impetus  in  his  determination  to 
get  grade  crossings  abolished  in  Massachu 
setts. 

Having  first  personally  interviewed  the 
presidents  of  several  great  railroads  leading  out 
from  Boston,  and  finding  one  or  two  heartily 
in  favor  of  the  idea,  two  or  three  more  not  in 
opposition,  and  scarcely  a  majority  opposed, 
he  persevered.  He  pressed  the  matter,  and 
the  bill  was  carried  and  signed  by  the  governor. 
It  provided  that  within  a  term  of  years  all 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life  315 

grade  crossings  in  Massachusetts  should  be 
abolished.  This  will  require  the  expenditure 
of  many  millions  of  dollars,  the  sinking  or  ele 
vating  of  tracks,  and  the  making  of  tunnels 
and  bridges.  The  work  was  nobly  begun. 
At  this  moment,  in  May,  1898,  the  progress 
is  steadily  forward  to  the  great  consummation. 

Though  his  measure  for  the  protection  of 
human  life  received  very  little  popular  notice, 
Carleton  counted  it  one  of  the  best  things  that 
God  had  allowed  him  to  do.  And  certainly, 
among  the  noble  and  truly  Christian  measures 
for  the  good  of  society,  in  this  last  decade  of  the 
century,  the  work  done  by  Lorenzo  Coffin  in 
Iowa,  as  well  as  in  the  country  at  large,  and  by 
Senator  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  in  Massachu 
setts,  —  a  State  whose  example  will  be  followed 
by  others, — ^must  ever  be  remembered  by  the 
grateful  student  of  social  progress.  Surely, 
Carleton  proved  himself  not  merely  a  poli 
tician,  but  a  statesman. 

The  welfare  of  the  city  of  Boston  was  ever 
dear  to  Carleton's  heart.  He  gave  a  great 
deal  of  time  and  thought  to  thinking  out  prob 
lems  affecting  its  welfare,  and  hence  was  often 
a  welcome  speaker  at  club  meetings,  which  are 


316  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

so  numerous,  so  delightful,  and,  certainly,  in 
their  number,  peculiar  to  Boston.  He  wrote 
for  the  press,  giving  his  views  freely,  whenever 
any  vital  question-  was  before  the  people.  This 
often  entailed  severe  labor  and  the  sacrifice  of 
time  to  one  who  could  never  boast  very  much 
of  this  world's  goods. 

When  the  writer  first,  in  1886,  came  to 
Boston  to  live,  he  found  the  horse  everywhere 
in  the  city;  when  he  left  it  in  1893  there  was 
only  the  trolley.  The  motor  power  was  car 
ried  through  the  air  from  a  central  source.  It 
is  even  yet,  however,  a  test  of  one's  knowledge 
of  Boston  —  a  city  not  laid  out  by  William 
Penn,  but  by  cows  and  admirers  of  crooked 
ness —  to  understand  the  street-car  system  of 
the  city.  Most  of  the  street  passenger  lines 
fell  gradually  into  the  hands  of  one  great  cor 
poration,  which  vastly  improved  the  service, 
enlarging  and  making  more  comfortable,  not 
to  say  luxurious,  the  accommodations,  and  by 
unification  enabling  one  to  ride  astonishing 
distances  for  a  nickel  coin. 

From  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  city  and  the 
converging  of  the  thoroughfares  on  Tremont 
Street,  fronting  the  Common  and  the  old  bury- 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life  317 

ing  grounds,  the  space  between  Boylston  Street 
and  Cornhill  was,  at  certain  hours  of  the  day, 
in  a  painful  state  of  congestion.  Then  the 
stoppage  of  the  cars,  the  loss  of  time,  and  the 
waste  of  temper  was  something  which  no  nine 
teenth  century  man  could  stand  with  equanim 
ity.  How  to  relieve  the  congestion  was  the 
difficulty.  Should  there  be  an  elevated  rail 
way,  or  a  new  avenue  opened  through  the 
midst  of  the  city  ?  This  was  the  question. 

To  this  subject,  Carleton  gave  his  earnest 
attention.  He  remembered  the  day  when  the 
now  elegant  region  of  the  Back  Bay  was  marsh 
and  water,  when  schooners  discharged  coal  and 
lumber  in  that  Public  Garden,  which  in  June 
looks  like  a  day  of  heaven  on  earth,  and 
when  Tremont  Street  stopped  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Boston  and  Albany  railway.  Even  as 
late  as  1850  the  population  included  within 
the  ten-mile  radius  of  the  city  hall  was  but 
267,861  ;  in  1890,  the  increase  was  to  841,- 
617  ;  and  the  same  ratio  of  increase  will  give, 
in  1930,  2,700,000  souls.  In  1871,  seventeen 
million  people  were  moved  into  Boston  by 
steam;  in  1891,  fifty-one  millions.  At  the 
same  ratio  of  increase,  on  the  opening  of  the 


318  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

twentieth  century,  there  will  be  100,000,000 
persons  riding  in  from  the  suburbs,  and  of 
travellers  in  the  street-cars,  in  A.  D.  1910, 
nearly  half  a  billion. 

Carleton,  the  engineer  and  statesman,  be 
lieved  that  neither  a  subway  nor  an  elevated 
railway  would  solve  the  problem.  He  spoke, 
lectured,  and  wrote,  in  favor  of  a  central  city 
viaduct.  For  both  surface  and  elevated  rail 
ways,  he  proposed  an  avenue  eighty  feet  wide, 
making  a  clear  road  from  Tremont  to  Cause 
way  Streets. 

Moreover,  he  believed  that  the  city  should 
own  the  roads  that  should  transport  passengers 
within  the  city  limits.  He  was  not  afraid  of 
that  kind  of  socialism  which  provides  for  the 
absolute  necessities  of  modern  associated  life. 
He  expected  great  amelioration  to  come  to 
society  from  the  breaking  up  and  passing  away 
of  the  old  relics  of  feudalism,  as  well  as  of  the 
power  of  the  privileged  man  as  against  man,  of 
wealth  against  commonwealth.  He  believed 
that  transportation  within  city  limits  should  be 
under  public  ownership  and  control.  He  there 
fore  opposed  the  subway  and  the  incorporation 
of  the  Boston  Elevated  Railroad  Company. 


A  Saviour  of  Human   Life  319 

One  of  his  most  vigorous  letters,  occupying 
a  column  and  a  half,  in  the  Boston  Herald  of 
July  17,  1895,  is  a  powerful  plea  for  the  re 
jection  by  the  people  of  an  act  which  should 
give  the  traffic  of  the  streets  of  Boston  and 

D 

surrounding  municipalities  into  the  hands  of  a 
corporation  for  all  time.  He  considered  that 
the  act,  which  had  been  rushed  through  the 
legislature  in  one  day  at  the  close  of  the  ses 
sion,  was  a  hasty  piece  of  patchwork  made  by 
dovetailing  two  bills  together,  and  was  highly 
objectionable.  He  wrote  : 

"  Why  shall  the  people  give  away  their  own 
rights  ?  Do  they  not  own  the  ground  beneath 
the  surface  and  the  air  above  the  surface?  .  .  . 
What  need  is  there  of  a  corporation  ?  Cannot 
the  people  in  their  sovereign  capacity  do  for 
themselves  all  that  a  corporation  can  do?  Why 
give  away  their  rights,  and  burden  themselves 
with  taxes  for  the  benefit  of  a  corporation  ? 

"  Does  some  one  say  it  is  a  nationalistic 
idea  ?  Then  it  is  nationalism  for  Boston  to 
own  Quincy  Market,  the  water  supply,  the 
system  of  sewerage.  Far  different  from  gov 
ernmental  ownership  of  railroads,  with  the 
complications  of  interstate  commerce,  is  the 


3  20  Charles   Carleton   Coffin 

proposition  for  public  ownership  of  street  rail 
ways.  A  street  is  a  highway.  Why  shall  not 
the  subway  under  the  street,  or  the  structure 
over  it,  be  a  highway,  built  and  owned  by  the 
people,  and  for  their  use  and  benefit,  and  not 
for  the  enrichment  of  a  corporation  ?  " 

After  forcibly  presenting  the  reasonable  ob 
jections  to  the  bill,  he  closed  by  pleading  that 
it  be  rejected,  and  that  the  next  legislature  be 
asked  to  establish  a  metropolitan  district  and 
the  appointment  of  a  commission  with  full 
power  to  do  everything  that  could  be  done 
under  the  bill,  "  not  for  the  greed  of  a  corpora 
tion,  but  for  the  welfare  of  the  people." 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

LIFE'S   EVENING  GLOW 

ARLETON'S  biographer  having  resigned 
the  pastorate  of  Shawmut  Church  at  the 
end  of  1892,  the  work  was  continued  by  the 
Rev.  William  E.  Barton,  who  had  been  called 
from  Wellington,  Ohio.  He  began  his  minis 
trations  March  i,  1893.  As  so  very  many 
families  forming  the  old  church,  and  who  had 
grown  up  in  it  from  early  manhood,  youth,  or 
even  childhood,  had  removed  from  the  neigh 
borhood,  it  was  necessary  to  reorganize  to  a 
certain  extent.  The  great  changes  which  had 
come  over  the  South  End,  and  the  drift  of 
population  to  the  more  attractive  neighbor 
hoods  in  the  Back  Bay,  Brookline,  Dorches 
ter,  Newton,  Allston,  and  other  beautiful 
suburbs  of  Boston,  caused  much  derangement 
of  previously  existing  conditions.  The  tre 
mendous  development  of  the  means  of  trans 
portation  by  the  steam,  horse  or  electric 

321 


322  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

railways,  to  say  nothing  of  the  bicycle,  had 
caused  a  marvellous  bloom  of  new  life  and 
flush  of  vigor  among  the  suburban  churches, 
while  those  in  the  older  parts  of  the  city  suf 
fered  corresponding  decline.  The  Shawmut 
Church,  like  the  Mount  Vernon,  the  Pine 
Street,  and  others,  had  to  pass  through  ex 
periences  which  make  a  familiar  story  to  those 
who  know  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Lon 
don.  The  work  of  the  old  city  churches  had 
been  to  train  up  and  graduate  sons  and 
daughters  with  noble  Christian  principles  and 
character,  to  build  up  the  waste  places  and  the 
newer  societies.  Like  bees,  the  new  swarms 
out  from  the  old  hives  were  called  to  gather 
fresh  honey. 

The  exodus  from  rural  New  England  and 
from  Canada  enlarged  Boston,  and  caused  the 
building  up  and  amazing  development  of 
Brookline.  With  such  powerful  magnets 
drawing  away  the  old  residents,  together  with 
the  multiplication  of  a  new  and  largely  non- 
American  and  Roman  Catholic  population  into 
the  district  lying  east  of  Washington  Street, 
the  older  congregations  of  the  South  Knd  had, 
by  1890,  been  vastly  changed.  Several  had 


Life's  Evening  Glow  323 

been  so  depleted  in  their  old  supporters,  that 
churches  moved  in  a  body  to  new  edifices  on 
the  streets  and  avenues  lying  westward.  In 
others  the  burdens  of  support  fell  upon  a  de 
creasing  number  of  faithful  men  and  women. 
Where  once  were  not  enough  church  edifices 
to  accommodate  the  people  who  would  wor 
ship  in  them,  was  now  a  redundancy.  In  the 
city  where  a  Roman  Catholic  church  was  once 
a  curiosity  are  now  nearly  fifty  churches  that 
acknowledge  the  Pope's  supremacy. 

These  things  are  stated  with  some  detail, 
in  order  to  show  the  character  of  Charles 
Carleton  Coffin  in  its  true  light.  After  a 
laborious  life,  having  borne  the  heat  and  bur 
den  of  the  day  in  the  churches  where  his  lot 
was  cast,  withal,  having  passed  his  three  score 
and  ten  years,  one  would  naturally  expect  this 
veteran  to  seek  repose.  Not  a  few  of  his 
friends  looked  to  see  him  set  himself  down  in 
some  one  of  the  luxurious  new  church  edifices, 
amid  congenial  social  surroundings  and  mate 
rial  comforts. 

Carleton  sought  not  his  own  comfort.  When 
the  new  pastor  and  the  old  guard,  left  in  Shaw- 
mut  Church  to  "  hold  the  fort,"  took  counsel 


324  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

together  as  to  the  future,  they  waited  with 
some  anxiety  to  hear  what  choice  and  decision 
Mr.  Coffin  would  make.  He  had  already 
selected  the  ground  and  was  making  plans  for 
building  his  new  home,  "  Alwington,"  at  No.  9 
Shailer  Street,  Brookline,  —  several  miles  away 
from  his  old  residence  in  Dartmouth  Street. 
It  was  naturally  thought  that  he  would  ally 
himself  with  a  wealthy  old  church  elsewhere, 
and  bid  farewell,  as  so  many  had  done,  to  their 
old  church  home,  taking  no  new  burdens,  risks, 
or  responsibilities.  During  the  conference  in 
the  Shawmut  prayer-room,  Carleton  rose  and, 
with  a  smiling  face  and  his  usual  impressive 
manner,  stated  that  he  should  give  his  hopes 
and  prayers,  his  sympathy  and  work,  his  gifts 
and  influence  to  Shawmut  Church ;  and,  for 
the  present  at  least,  without  dictating  the 
future,  would  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Shawmut 
people.  A  thrill  of  delight,  unbidden  tears  of 
joy,  and  a  new  warmth  of  heart  came  to  those 
who  heard.  As  time  went  on  he  so  adjusted 
himself  to  the  change,  and  found  Dr.  Barton 
such  a  stimulating  preacher,  that  any  thought 
of  sacrifice  entirely  vanished. 

When   the   first   Congregational  Church   of 


Life's  Evening  Glow  325 

Christ  in  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  —  the  city  named  by 
Simeon  DeWitt  after  his  Ulysses-like  wander 
ings  were  over,  —  sent  out  its  "  letter  missive" 
to  the  churches  of  the  Central  Association  of 
New  York  State,  and  to  Shawmut  Church  in 
Boston,  the  latter  responded.  It  was  voted  to 
send,  as  their  messengers,  the  pastor,  Rev.  Dr. 
Barton,  and  Mr.  Coffin  ;  Mrs.  Barton  and  Mrs. 
Coffin  accompanied  them.  These  four  came 
on  to  the  Forest  City  and  its  university  "  far 
above  Cayuga's  waters."  With  the  delight  of 
a  boy  Carleton  enjoyed  the  marvellously  lovely 
scenery,  the  hills  robed  in  colors  as  many  as 
though  they  had  borrowed  Joseph's  robe,  and 
Cayuga,  the  queen  of  the  waters  in  New  York's 
beautiful  lake  region.  Most  of  all  he  visited 
with  delight  that  typical  American  university 
which,  Christian  in  spirit,  neither  propagates 
nor  attacks  the  creed  of  any  sect. 

With  its  stately  edifices  for  culture,  training, 
research,  and  religion,  it  had  risen  like  a  new  city 
on  the  farm  of  Ezra  Cornell.  This  far-seeing 
man,  like  Mr.  Coffin,  had,  when  so  many 
others  were  blind,  discerned  in  the  new  force, 
electricity,  the  vast  future  benefits  to  com 
merce,  science,  and  civilization.  Ezra  Cornell 


326  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

had  helped  powerfully  to  develop  its  applica 
tion  by  his  thought,  his  money,  and  his  per 
sonal  influence.  Ezra  Cornell,  in  Irish  phrase, 
"  invented  telegraph  poles."  Moses  Farmer, 
the  electrician,  invented  the  lineman's  spurred 
irons  by  which  to  climb  them. 

Besides  attending  the  Church  Council  in  the 
afternoon,  Carleton  made  an  address  in  the 
evening  that  was  to  one  flattering  and  to  many 
inspiring.  Later  on,  the  same  night,  he  at 
tended  the  reception  given  to  the  Faculty  and 
new  students  at  the  house  of  President  J.  G. 
Schurman.  He  was  delighted  in  seeing  the 
young  president,  with  whose  power  as  a  thinker 
and  writer  he  had  already  acquainted  himself. 

Carleton's  last  and  chief  literary  work,  done 
in  his  old  home  on  Dartmouth  Street,  was  to 
link  together  in  the  form  of  story  the  Revolu 
tionary  lore  which  he  had  gathered  up  from 
talks  with  participators  in  "  the  time  that  tried 
men's  souls."  From  boyhood's  memories, 
from  long  and  wide  reading  in  original  mono 
graphs,  from  topographical  acquaintance,  he 
planned  to  write  a  trio  or  quartet  of  stories  of 
American  history.  He  wished  to  present  the 
scenes  of  the  Revolution  as  in  the  bright 


Life's   Evening  Glow  327 

colors  of  reality,  in  the  dark  shadows  which 
should  recall  sacrifice,  and  with  that  graphic 
detail  and  power  to  turn  the  past  into  the  pres 
ent,  of  which  he  was  a  master. 

As  he  had  repeatedly  written  the  story  of 
the  great  Civil  War  from  the  point  of  view  of 
a  war  correspondent  actually  on  the  ground, 
so  would  he  tell  the  story  of  the  Revolution 
as  if  he  had  been  a  living  and  breathing  wit 
ness  of  what  went  on  from  day  to  day,  enjoy 
ing  and  suffering  those  hopes  and  fears  which 
delight  and  torment  the  soul  when  the  veil  of 
the  future  still  hangs  opaque  before  the  mind. 

His  first  instalment,  "  The  Daughters  of 
the  Revolution,"  was  published  by  Messrs. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  in  a  comely  and 
well-illustrated  volume.  It  deals  with  that 
opening  history  of  the  eight  years'  war  with 
Great  Britain  which  at  the  beginning  had 
Boston  for  its  centre  and  in  which  New  Eng 
land  especially  took  part. 

In  his  other  books,  "  Building  the  Nation," 
"  Boys  of  '76,"  and  "  Old  Times  in  the  Colo 
nies,"  Carleton  had  not  ignored  the  work  and 
influence  of  the  "  home  guard  "  composed  of 
mothers,  daughters,  aunts,  cousins,  and  grand- 


328  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

mothers;  but  in  this  story  of  the  "  Daughters  " 
he  gave  special  prominence  to  what  our  fe 
male  ancestors  did  to  make  the  country  free, 
and  to  hand  down  in  safeguarded  forms  that 
which  had  been  outraged  by  King  and  Parlia 
ment. 

How  widely  popular  this  volume  may  have 
been,  the  writer  cannot  say,  but  he  knows  that 
one  little  maiden  whom  he  sees  every  day 
has  re-read  the  work  several  times. 

In  a  subsequent  volume  of  the  series,  Carle- 
ton  proposed  to  repicture  the  splendid  achieve 
ments  of  the  colonial  army  in  northeastern 
New  York.  Here,  from  Lake  Champlain  to 
Sandy  Hook,  is  a  "great  rift  valley"  which 
lies  upon  the  earth's  scarred  and  diversified 
surface  like  a  mighty  trough.  It  corresponds 
to  that  larger  and  grander  rift  valley  from 
Lebanon  to  Zanzibar,  through  Galilee  and  the 
Jordan,  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  great  Nyanzas, 
or  Lakes  of  Africa.  As  in  the  oldest  gash  on 
the  earth's  face  lies  the  scene  of  a  long  pro 
cession  of  events,  so,  of  all  places  on  the 
American  continent,  probably,  no  line  of  terri 
tory  has  witnessed  such  a  succession  of  dra 
matic,  brilliant,  and  decisive  events,  both  in 


Life's  Evening  Glow  329 

unrecorded  time  and  in  historic  days,  from 
Champlain  and  Henry  Hudson  to  the  era  of 
Fulton,  Morse,  and  Edison. 

In  the  Revolution,  the  Green  Mountain 
boys,  and  the  New  York  and  New  England 
militia  under  Schuyler  and  Gates,  had  made 
this  region  the  scene  of  one  of  the  decisive 
campaigns  of  the  world.  Yet,  in  the  back 
ground  and  at  home,  the  heroines  did  their 
noble  part  in  working  for  that  consummation 
at  Saratoga  which  won  the  recognition  and 
material  aid  of  France  for  the  United  States 
of  America.  Besides  Lafayette,  came  also  the 
lilies  of  France,  alongside  the  stars  and  stripes. 
The  white  uniforms  were  set  in  battle  array 
with  the  buff  and  blue  against  the  red  coats, 
and  herein  Carleton  saw  visions  and  dreamed 
dreams,  which  his  pen,  like  the  camera  which 
chains  the  light,  was  to  photograph  in  words. 
He  had  made  his  preliminary  studies,  read 
ings,  personal  interviews,  and  reexamination 
of  the  region,  and  had  written  four  or  five 
chapters,  when  the  call  of  the  Captain  to  an 
other  detail  of  service  came  to  him. 

Life  is  worth  living  as  long  as  one  is  inter 
ested  in  other  lives  than  one's  own.  "  Dando 


jjo  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

conservat "  is  the  motto  of  a  famous  Dutch- 
American  family.  So  Carleton,  by  giving, 
preserved.  In  the  summer  of  1895,  after 
Japan  had  startled  the  world  by  her  military 
prowess,  Carleton  went  down  to  Nantucket 
Island,  and  there  at  a  great  celebration  deliv 
ered  a  fine  historical  address,  closing  with  these 
words  : 

"  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  he  who  guides 
the  sparrow  in  its  flight  saw  fit  to  use  the  sail 
ors  of  Nantucket,  by  shipwreck  and  imprison 
ment,  as  his  agents  to  bring  about  the  resur 
rection  of  the  millions  of  Japan  from  the  grave 
of  a  dead  past  to  a  new  and  vigorous  life. 
Thus  it  is  that  Nantucket  occupies  an  exalted 
position  in  connection  with  the  history  of  our 
country.'* 

Of  this  he  wrote  me  in  one  of  his  last  letters, 
February  27,  1896  : 

"  I  have  read  c  Townsend  Harris  '  with  un 
speakable  delight.  I  love  to  think  of  the 
resurrection  of  Japan  in  connection  with  the 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts, — the  original  move 
ment  culminating  in  Perry's  expedition  having 
its  origin  in  the  shipwrecking  ot  Nantucket 
sailors  on  the  shores  of  that  empire."  Mr. 


Life's  Evening  Glow  331 

Coffin  brought  out  this  idea  in  his  earlier  and 
later  address  which  he  gave  at  Nantucket. 

Having  lived  over  thirteen  years,  from  1877 
to  1895,  at  No.  8 1  Dartmouth  Street,  and 
feeling  now  the  need  for  a  little  more  quiet 
from  the  rumble  of  the  trolley-car,  for  more 
light  and  room,  for  house  space,  for  the  accom 
modation  of  friends  who  loved  to  make  their 
home  with  a  genial  host  and  his  loving  com 
panion,  and  to  indulge  in  that  hospitality 
which  was  a  lifelong  trait,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cof 
fin  began  looking  for  a  site  whereon  to  build 
in  Brookline.  No  yokefellows  were  ever  more 
truly  one  in  spirit  than  "  Uncle  Charles  and 
Aunt  Sally."  Providence  having  denied  them 
the  children  for  whom  they  had  yearned,  both 
delighted  in  a  constant  stream  of  young  people 
and  friends.  Blessed  by  divine  liberality  in 
the  form  of  nephews  and  nieces,  rich  in  the 
gifts  of  nature,  culture,  and  grace,  neither 
Carleton  nor  his  wife  was  often  left  lonely. 

The  new  house  was  built  after  his  sugges 
tions  and  under  his  own  personal  oversight,  the 
outdoor  tasks  and  journeys  thus  necessitated 
making  a  variety  rather  pleasant  than  otherwise. 
Here,  in  this  new  home,  his  golden  wedding 


33  2  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

was  to  be  celebrated,  February  18,  1896.  The 
house  was  in  modern  style,  with  all  the  com 
forts  and  conveniences  which  science  and 
applied  art  could  suggest.  While  compara 
tively  modest  and  simple  in  general  plan  and 
equipment,  it  had  open  fireplaces,  electric 
lights,  a  spacious  porch,  roomy  hallways, 
and  plenty  of  windows.  It  was  No.  9 
Shailer  Street,  and  named  Alwington,  after 
the  ancestral  home  in  Devonshire,  England. 
Mr.  Coffin's  study  room  was  upon  the 
northeast,  where,  with  plenty  of  light  and 
the  morning  sun,  he  could  sit  at  his  desk 
looking  out  upon  Harvard  Street,  and  over 
towards  Beacon  Street ;  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street,  fortunately,  not  being  occupied  by 
buildings  to  obscure  his  view.  At  first  he  was 
often  allured  from  his  work  for  many  minutes, 
and  even  for  a  half  hour  at  a  time,  by  a  majes 
tic  elm-tree  so  rich  in  foliage  and  comely  in 
form  that  he  looked  upon  it  with  ravished 
eyes.  It  was  in  this  room  that  he  wrote  the 
chapters  for  his  second  book,  which  was  to 
show  especially  the  part  which  American 
women  had  played  in  the  making  of  their 
country. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE    HOME    AT    ALWINGTON 

IT  was  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  Mr. 
Coffin  was  to  exchange  worlds  and  transfer 
his  work  in  the  very  year  in  which  the  issues 
of  the  Civil  War  were  to  be  eliminated  from 
national  politics,  when  not  one  of  the  several 
party  platforms  was  to  make  any  allusion  to 
the  struggle  of  1861-65,  or  to  any  of  its 
numerous  legacies.  In  this  year,  1896,  also, 
for  the  first  time  since  1860,  Southern  men,  the 
one  a  Confederate  general,  and  the  other  a 
Populist  editor,  were  to  be  nominated  for  pos 
sible  chief  magistracy.  Mr.  Coffin,  with  pre 
science,  had  already  seen  that  the  war  issues, 
grand  as  they  were,  had  melted  away  into  even 
vaster  national  questions.  He  had  turned  his 
thoughts  towards  the  solution  of  problems 
which  concerned  the  nation  as  a  whole  and 
humanity  as  a  race.  His  historical  addresses 
and  lectures  went  back  to  older  subjects,  while 
333 


334  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

his  thoughts  soared  forward  to  the  newer  con 
ditions,  theories,  and  problems  which  were 
looming  in  the  slowly  unveiling  future.  In 
literature  he  turned,  and  gladly,  too,  from  the 
scenes  of  slavery  and  war  between  brothers. 
With  his  pen  he  sought  to  picture  the  ancient 
heroisms,  in  the  story  of  which  the  people  of  the 
States  of  rice  and  cotton,  as  well  as  of  granite, 
ice,  and  grain,  were  alike  interested,  as  in  a 
common  heritage.  In  Alwington,  surrounded 
by  old  and  new  friends,  genial  and  cultured, 
he  hoped,  if  it  were  God's  will,  to  complete  his 
work  with  a  rotunda-like  series  of  pen  pictures 
of  the  Revolution. 

This  was  not  to  be,  though  he  was  to  die 
"  in  harness,'*  like  Nicanor  of  old,  without  lin 
gering  illness  or  broken  powers.  While  he 
was  to  see  not  a  few  golden  days  of  A.  D.  i  896, 
yet  the  proposed  pictures  were  to  be  left  upon 
the  easel,  scarcely  more  than  begun.  The 
pen  and  ink  on  his  table  were  to  remain,  like 
brushes  on  the  palette,  with  none  to  finish  as 
the  master-workman  had  planned. 

Months  before  that  date  of  February  i8th, 
on  which  their  golden  wedding  was  to  be  cele 
brated,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coffin  had  secured  mv 


The  Home  at  Alwington  335 

promise  that  I  should  be  present.  Coming  on 
to  Boston,  I  led  the  morning  worship  in  the 
Eliot  Church  of  Newton,  which  is  named  after 
the  apostle  of  the  Indians,  the  quarter-millennial 
anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  whose  work  at 
Nonantum  has  just  been  celebrated.  In  the 
afternoon,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  looking  into 
the  faces  of  three  score  or  more  of  my  former 
Shawmut  parishioners  in  the  Casino  hall  in 
Beaconsfield  Terrace. 

Mr.  Coffin  had,  from  the  first,  fully  agreed 
with  the  writer  in  believing  that  a  Congrega 
tional  church  should  be  formed  in  the  Reser 
voir  district,  which  had,  he  predicted,  a  brilliant 
and  substantial  future.  He  was  among  the 
very  first  to  move  for  the  sale  of  the  old 
property  on  Tremont  Street,  and  he  personally 
prepared  the  petition  to  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts  for  permission  to  sell  and  move. 
Afterwards,  when  the  new  enterprise  seemed 
to  have  been  abandoned,  he  listened  to  the  call 
of  duty  and  remained  in  Shawmut  Church. 
When  he  became  a  resident  in  Brookline,  feel 
ing  it  still  his  duty  to  work  and  toil,  to  break 
new  paths,  to  make  the  road  straight  for  his 
Master,  rather  than  to  sit  down  at  ease  in 


336  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

Zion,  he  cast  his  lot  in  with  a  little  company 
of  those  who,  though  few  and  without  wealth, 
bravely  and  hopefully  resolved  to  form  a 
church  where  it  was  needed.  On  November 
jd,  they  first  gathered  for  worship,  and  one 
year  later,  November  4,  1896,  the  church  was 
formed,  with  Rev.  Harris  G.  Hale  as  pastor, 
and  taking  the  historic,  appropriate,  but  un 
common  name,  Leyden.  Their  first  collection 
of  money,  as  a  thank-offering  to  God,  was  for 
Foreign  Missions. 

On  that  afternoon  of  February  i6th,  Carle- 
ton  was  present,  joining  heartily  in  the  worship. 
As  usual,  he  listened  with  that  wonderfully 
luminous  face  of  his  and  that  close  attention  to 
the  discourse,  which,  like  the  cable-ships,  ran 
out  unseen  telegraphy  of  sympathy.  The  ser 
vice,  and  the  usual  warm  grasping  of  hands  and 
those  pleasant  social  exchanges  for  which  the 
Shawmut  people  were  so  noted,  being  over, 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  gathered  in  the  hospit 
able  library  of  M.  F.  Dickinson,  Jr.,  whose 
home  was  but  a  few  rods  off,  on  the  other  side 
of  Beacon  Street.  After  a  half  hour  of  spark 
ling  reminiscences  of  the  dear  old  days  in 
Shawmut,  all  had  gone  except  the  host,  Mr. 


The  Home  at  Alwington  337 

Coffin,  and  the  biographer,  who  then  had  not 
even  a  passing  thought  of  the  work  he  was 
soon  to  do.  As  Carleton  sat  there  in  an  easy 
chair  before  the  wood-fire  on  the  open  hearth, 
his  feet  stretched  out  comfortably  upon  the 
tiles,  and  his  two  hands,  with  their  finger 
and  thumb  tips  together,  as  was  his  usual 
custom  when  good  thinking  and  pleasant  con 
versation  went  on  together,  he  talked  about 
the  future  of  Boston  and  of  Congregational 
Christianity. 

Interested  as  I  was,  a  sudden  feeling  of  pain 
seized  me  as  I  noticed  how  sunken  were  his 
eyes.  I  am  not  a  physician,  but  I  have  seen 
many  people  die.  I  have  looked  upon  many 
more  as  they  approached  their  mortal  end, 
marked  with  signs  which  they  saw  not,  nor 
often  even  their  friends  observed,  but  which 
were  as  plain  and  readable  as  the  stencilled 
directions  upon  freight  to  be  sent  and  deliv 
ered  elsewhere.  After  a  handshake  and  an 
invitation  from  him  to  dine  the  next  night 
at  his  house,  and  to  be  at  the  golden  wedding 
on  Tuesday,  we  bade  him  good  afternoon. 
On  returning  with  my  host  in  front  of  the 
fire,  I  said,  "  I  feel  sad,  for  our  friend  Mr, 


33 8  Charles  Carleton   Coffin 

Coffin  is  marked  for  early  death  ;  he  will  cer 
tainly  not  outlive  this  year." 

Nevertheless,  I  could  not  but  count  Charles 
Carleton  Coffin  among  the  number  of  those 
whom  God  made  rich  in  the  threefold  life  of 
body,  soul,  and  spirit. 

The  old  Greeks,  whose  wonderfully  rich  ex 
perience  of  life,  penetrating  insight,  powers  of 
analysis,  and  gift  of  literary  expression  enabled 
them  to  coin  the  words  to  fitly  represent  their 
thoughts,  knew  how  to  describe  both  love  and 
life  better  than  we,  having  a  mintage  of  thought 
for  each  in  its  threefold  form.  As  they  dis 
criminated  eroSj  phil'e,  and  agape  in  love,  so  also 
they  put  difference  between  psyche,  bios,  and  zoe 
in  life. 

What  other  ranges  of  existence  and  develop 
ments  of  being  there  may  be  for  God's  chosen 
ones  in  worlds  to  come,  we  dare  not  conjecture, 
but  this  we  know.  Carleton  had  even  then, 
as  I  saw  him  marked  for  an  early  change  of 
worlds,  entered  into  threefold  life. 

i .  The  lusty  boy  and  youth,  the  mature  man 
with  not  a  perfect,  yet  a  sound,  physical  organi 
zation,  showed  a  good  specimen  of  the  human 
animal,  rich  in  the  breath  of  life,  — psyche. 


The  Home  at  Alwington  339 

2.  The  long  and  varied  career  of  farmer, 
surveyor,   citizen,   Christian   interested   in    his 
fellows   and   their  welfare,   with   varied   work, 
travel,   and    adventure,   manifested    the    noble 
bios,  —  the  career  or  course  of  strenuous  en 
deavor. 

3.  The  spiritual  attainments   in   character, 
the   ever   outflowing   benevolence,  the   kindly 
thought,  the  healing  sunshine  of  his  presence, 
the   calm   faith,  the   firm   trust   in    God,  gave 
assurance  of  the  zoe. 

These  three  stages  of  existence  revealed 
Carleton  as  one  affluent  with  what  men  call 
life,  and  of  which  the  young  ever  crave  more, 
and  also  in  that  "  life  which  is  life  indeed," 
which  survives  death,  which  is  the  extinction 
of  the  psyche  or  animal  breath,  —  the  soul 
remaining  as  the  abode  of  the  spirit.  In  body, 
soul,  and  spirit,  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  was  a 
true  man,  who,  even  in  the  evening  of  life,  was 
rich  in  those  three  forms  of  life  which  God 
has  revealed  and  discriminated  through  the 
illuminating  Greek  language  of  the  New  Test 
ament. 

True  indeed  it  was  that,  while  with  multiply 
ing  years  the  animal  life  lessened  in  quantity 


34°  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

and  intensity,  the  spiritual  life  was  enriched  and 
deepened  ;  or,  to  put  it  in  Paul's  language  and 
in  the  historical  present  so  favored  by  Carle- 
ton,  "  While  the  outward  man  perisheth,  the 
inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day." 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE    GOLDEN    WEDDING 

THUS,  amid  happy  surroundings,  in  the 
new  home,  in  the  last  leap-year  of  this 
wonderful  century,  came  the  time  of  the  golden 
wedding.  God  had  walked  with  these,  his 
children,  fifty  years,  while  they  had  walked 
with  one  another.  Providence  seemed  to 
whisper,  "  Come,  for  all  things  are  now 
ready."  The  new  home  was  finished  and 
furnished,  all  bright  and  cheerful,  and  suffused 
with  the  atmosphere  of  genial  companionship. 
The  bride  of  a  half  century  before,  now  with 
the  roses  of  health  blooming  under  the  trellis 
of  her  silvery  hair,  with  sparkling  eyes  beaming 
fun  and  sympathy,  welcome  and  gladness,  by 
turns,  was  at  this  season  in  happy  health. 
This  was  largely  owing,  as  she  gladly  acknowl 
edged,  to  regular  calisthenics,  plenty  of  fresh 
air,  and  complete  occupation  of  mind  and  body. 
The  thousand  invitations  in  gilt  and  white  had, 

341 


342  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

as  with  "  the  wings  of  a  dove  covered  with  sil 
ver  and  her  feathers  with  yellow  gold,"  flown 
over  the  city,  commonwealth,  and  nation.  On 
February  i8th,  the  house  having  been  trans 
formed  by  young  friends  into  a  maze  of 
greenery  and  flowers,  husband  and  wife  stood 
together  to  receive  congratulations.  In  the 
hall  were  ropes  of  sturdy  pine  boughs  and 
glistening  laurel,  with  a  huge  wreath  of  ever 
green  suspended  from  the  ceiling,  and  bearing 
the  anniversary  date,  1846  and  1896.  In  the 
reception-room  one  friend  had  hung  the  em 
blem  of  two  hearts  joined  by  a  band  of  gold 
above  the  cornice.  Dining-room  and  library 
were  festooned  with  smilax.  In  the  archways 
and  windows  were  hanging  baskets  of  jonquils 
and  ferns.  "  An  help  meet  for  him,"  the  bride 
of  fifty  years  was  arrayed  in  heliotrope  satin 
with  trimmings  of  point  lace,  making,  as  we 
thought,  with  her  delicate  complexion  and  soft 
white  hair,  a  sight  as  lovely  as  when,  amid  the 
snow-storms  of  New  Hampshire,  a  half  century 
before,  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  first  called  Sallie 
Farmer  his  wife. 

Of   Washington    it    has    been    said,    "  God 
made   him   childless   that   a    nation   might   call 


The  Golden  Wedding  343 

him  father."  In  the  home  on  that  day  were 
scores  of  nieces  and  nephews,  and  children  of 
several  generations,  from  the  babe  in  arms,  and 
the  child  with  pinafore,  to  the  stately  dames 
and  long-bearded  men,  who,  one  and  all,  called 
the  bride  and  groom  "  uncle  and  aunt."  From 
a  ladies'  orchestra,  on  the  top  floor,  music  filled 
the  house,  the  melody  falling  like  a  lark's  song 
in  upper  air.  In  the  dining-room,  turned  for 
the  nonce  into  a  booth  of  evergreens,  where 
everything  was  sparkle  and  joy,  new  and  old 
friends  met  to  discuss,  over  dainty  cups  and 
plates,  both  the  happy  moment  and  the  de 
lights  of  long  ago. 

It  was  not  only  a  very  bright,  but  a  note 
worthy  company  that  gathered  on  that  Febru 
ary  afternoon  and  evening.  Massachusetts  was 
about  to  lose  by  death  her  Governor,  F.  T. 
Greenhalge,  as  she  had  lost  three  ex-Gover 
nors,  all  friends  of  Carleton,  within  the  pre 
vious  twelvemonth,  but  there  was  present  the 
handsome  acting-Governor  of  the  Common 
wealth,  Roger  Wolcott.  Men  eminent  in 
political  life,  authors,  editors,  preachers,  busi 
ness  men,  troops  of  lifelong  friends,  men  and 
women  of  eminence,  honor,  and  usefulness, 


344  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

fellow  Christians  and  workers  in  wonderfully 
varied  lines  of  activity,  were  present  to  share 
in  and  add  to  the  joy.  Among  the  gifts, 
which  seemed  to  come  like  Jupiter's  shower 
of  gold  upon  Danae,  were  two  that  touched 
Carleton  very  deeply.  The  Massachusetts 
Club,  which  has  numbered  in  its  body  many 
Senators,  Governors,  generals,  diplomatists, 
lawyers,  authors,  and  merchants,  whose  names 
shine  very  high  on  the  roll  of  national  fame, 
sent  their  fellow  member  an  appropriate  pres 
ent.  Instead  of  the  regular  cup,  vase,  or  urn, 
or  anything  that  might  suggest  stress,  strain, 
or  even  victory,  or  even  minister  to  personal 
vanity,  the  Club,  through  its  secretary,  Mr. 
S.  S.  Blanchard,  presented  the  master  of 
Alwington  with  a  superb  steel  engraving, 
richly  framed.  It  represented  the  Master, 
sitting  under  the  vine-roof  trellis  at  the  home 
of  Lazarus,  in  Bethlehem.  "  You  knew  just 
what  I  wanted,"  whispered  the  happy  receiver. 
During  the  evening,  when  the  people  of 
Shawmut  Church  were  present,  a  hundred  or 
more  strong,  their  former  and  latter  chief  ser 
vant  being  with  them,  a  silver  casket,  with 
twenty  half  eagles  in  it,  was  presented  by  Dr. 


The  Golden  Wedding  345 

W.  E.  Barton,  with  choice  and  fitting  words. 
So  deeply  affected  was  this  man  Carleton,  so 
noted  for  his  self-mastery,  that,  for  a  moment, 
those  who  knew  him  best  were  shot  through 
as  by  a  shaft  of  foreboding,  lest,  then  and  there, 
the  horses  and  chariot  of  fire  might  come  for 
the  prophet.  A  quarter  of  a  minute's  pause, 
understood  by  most  present  as  nothing  more 
than  a  natural  interval  between  presentation 
speech  and  reply,  and  then  Carleton,  as  fully 
as  his  emotion  would  admit,  uttered  fitting 
words  of  response. 

The  "  banquet  hall  deserted,"  the  photo 
graphic  camera  was  brought  into  requisition, 
and  pleasant  souvenirs  of  a  grand  occasion 
were  made.  Everything  joyously  planned 
had  been  happily  carried  out.  This  was  the 
culminating  event  in  the  life  of  a  good  man, 
to  the  making  of  whom,  race,  ancestry,  par 
entage,  wife,  home,  friends,  country,  and  op 
portunity  had  contributed,  and  to  all  of  which 
and  whom,  under  God,  Carleton  often  made 
grateful  acknowledgments. 

It  was  but  a  fortnight  after  this  event,  in 
which  I  participated  with  such  unalloyed  pleas 
ure,  that  the  telegraphic  yellow  paper,  with  its 


346  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

type-script  message,  announced  that  the  earthly 
house  of  the  tabernacle  of  Carleton's  spirit  had 
been  dissolved,  and  that  his  building  of  God, 
the  "  house  not  made  with  hands,"  had  been 
entered. 

The  story  of  Carleton's  last  thirteen  days 
on  earth  is  soon  told.  He  had  written  a  little 
upon  his  new  story.  For  the  Boston  Journal 
he  had  penned  an  article  calling  attention  to 
the  multiplying  "  sky-scraper  "  houses,  and  the 
need  of  better  fire-apparatus.  He  had,  with 
the  physician's  sanction,  agreed  to  address  on 
Monday  evening,  March  2d,  the  T.  Starr  King 
Unitarian  Club  of  South  Boston,  on  "  Some 
Recollections  of  a  War  Correspondent." 

Carleton's  last  Sunday  on  earth  was  as  one 
of  "  the  days  of  heaven  upon  earth."  It  was 
rich  to  overflowing  with  joyous  experiences. 
It  is  now  ours  to  see  that  the  shadows  of  his 
sunset  of  life  were  pointing  to  the  eternal 
morning. 

It  was  the  opening  day  of  spring.  At 
Shawmut  Church,  in  holy  communion,  he, 
with  others,  celebrated  the  love  of  his  Saviour 
and  Friend.  To  Carleton,  it  was  a  true  Eu 
charist.  A  new  vision  of  the  cross  and  its 


The  Golden  Wedding  347 

meaning  seemed  to  dawn  upon  his  soul.  At 
the  supper- table,  conversation  turned  upon 
Christ's  obedience  unto  death,  his  great  rec 
onciliation  of  man  to  God,  his  power  to  move 
men,  the  crucifixion,  and  its  meaning.  Carle- 
ton  said,  after  expressing  his  deep  satisfaction 
with  Doctor  Barton's  morning  sermon,  and  his 
interpretation  of  the  atonement,  that  he  re 
garded  Christ's  life  as  the  highest  exhibition 
of  service.  By  his  willing  death  on  the  cross, 
Jesus  showed  himself  the  greatest  and  best 
of  all  servants  of  man,  while  thus  joyfully 
doing  his  Father's  will.  On  that  day  of  rest, 
Carleton  seemed  to  dwell  in  an  almost 
transfigurating  atmosphere  of  delight  in  his 
Master. 

On  Sunday  night  husband  and  wife  enjoyed 
a  quiet  hour,  hand  in  hand,  before  the  wood 
fire.  The  sunlight  and  warmth  of  years  gone 
by,  coined  into  stick  and  fagots  from  the  for 
est,  were  released  again  in  glow  and  warmth, 
making  playful  lights  and  warning  shadows. 
The  golden  minutes  passed  by.  The  prattle 
of  lovers  and  the  sober  wisdom  of  experience 
blended.  Then,  night's  oblivion.  Again,  the 
cheerful  morning  meal  and  the  merry  company, 


348  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

the  incense  of  worship,  and  the  separation  of 
each  and  all  to  the  day's  toil. 

Carleton  sat  down  in  his  study  room  to 
write.  He  soon  called  his  wife,  complaining 
of  a  distressing  pain  in  his  stomach.  He  was 
advised  to  go  to  bed,  and  did  so.  The  phy 
sician,  Dr.  A.  L.  Kennedy,  was  sent  for. 
"  How  is  your  head  ?  "  asked  Doctor  Kennedy. 

"  If  it  were  not  for  this  pain,  I  should  get 
up  and  write,"  answered  Carleton. 

With  the  consent  of  the  physician  he  rose 
from  the  couch  and  walked  the  room  for 
awhile  for  relief.  Then  returning,  as  he  was 
about  to  lie  down  again,  he  fell  over.  Quickly 
unconscious,  he  passed  away.  Science  would 
call  the  immediate  cause  of  death  apoplexy. 

Thus  died  at  his  post,  as  he  would  have 
wished,  the  great  war  correspondent,  traveller, 
author,  statesman,  and  friend  of  man  and  God. 
He  had  lived  nearly  three  years  beyond  the 
allotted  period  of  three  score  and  ten. 

Two  days  later,  while  the  flag  over  the  pub 
lic  schoolhouse  in  Brookline  drooped  at  half- 
mast,  and  Carleton's  picture  was  wreathed  with 
laurels,  at  the  request  of  the  scholars  them 
selves,  in  the  impressive  auditorium  of  Shaw- 


The  Golden  Wedding  349 

mut  Church,  Carleton's  body  lay  amid  palms 
and  lilies  in  the  space  fronting  the  pulpit.  At 
his  head  and  at  his  feet  stood  a  veteran-senti 
nel  from  the  John  A.  Andrew  Post  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  These  were 
relieved  every  quarter  of  an  hour,  during  the 
exercises,  by  comrades  who  had  been  detailed 
for  a  service  which  they  were  proud  to  render 
to  one  who  had  so  well  told  their  story  and 
honored  them  so  highly.  It  was  entirely  a 
voluntary  offering  on  the  part  of  the  veterans 
to  pay  this  tribute  of  regard,  which  was  as 
touching  as  it  was  unostentatious. 

Nowhere  in  the  church  edifice  were  there  any 
of  the  usual  insignia  of  woe.  The  dirge  was 
at  first  played  to  express  the  universal  grief  in 
the  music  of  the  organ,  but  it  soon  melted  into 
In  Memoriam  and  hymns  of  triumph.  The 
quartet  sang  "Jesus  Reigns,"  a  favorite 
hymn  of  Carleton's,  to  music  which  he  had 
himself  composed  only  two  years  before. 

It  reminded  me  of  the  burst  of  melody 
which,  from  the  belfry  of  the  church  in  a 
Moravian  town,  announces  the  soul's  farewell 
to  earth  and  birth  into  heaven. 

In  the  audience  which  filled  the  pews  down- 


350  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

stairs  were  men  and  women  eminent  in  every 
walk  of  life,  representatives  of  clubs,  societies, 
and  organizations.  Probably  without  a  single 
exception,  all  were  sincere  mourners,  while  yet 
rejoicing  in  a  life  so  nobly  rounded  out.  In 
the  pulpit  sat  two  of  the  pastors  of  Shawmut 
Church,  and  Dr.  Arthur  Little,  friend  of 
Carleton's  boyhood,  and  a  near  relative.  The 
eulogies  were  discriminating. 

The  addresses,  with  the  prayers  offered  and 
the  tributes  made  in  script  or  print,  with  some 
letters  of  condolence  received  by  Mrs.  Coffin, 
and  a  remarkable  interesting  biographical 
sketch  from  The  CongregationaUst^  by  Rev. 
Howard  A.  Bridgman,  have  been  gathered  in 
a  pamphlet  published  by  George  H.  Wright, 
Harcourt  Street,  Boston. 

From  this  pamphlet  we  extract  the  follow 
ing  : 

After  prayer  and  a  brief  silence,  Dr.  Little  said  : 
u  There  are  few  men,  I  think,  engrossed  in  the 
affairs  of  life,  for  an  entire  generation,  to  whom 
the  Word  of  God  was  so  vital  and  so  precious  as 
to  our  friend,  Mr.  Coffin.  Let  us  open  this  Word, 
and  listen  while  God  speaks  to  us,  in  Ps.  23  ;  Ps. 
39:  4,  13;  Ps.  46:  i,  5,  7. 


The  Golden  Wedding  351 

"  I  will  read  from  Ezekiel  26  :  1—5,  which  was  a 
favorite  word  with  Mr.  Coffin,  and  the  passage 
which  he  himself  read,  as  he  was  journeying  in 
the  Eastern  land,  at  the  very  spot  concerning  which 
the  prophecy  is  uttered.  Mr.  Coffin  was  sitting 
there  with  his  open  Bible,  and  saw  the  literal  fulfil 
ment  of  this  prophecy,  —  the  fishermen  spreading  the 
nets  in  the  very  neighborhood  where  he  was  sitting." 

The  continued  readings  were  from  John  n  :  21, 
23  ;  John  14  :  19  ;  2  Cor.  5  :  I,  8  ;  Rev.  21  :  I  ; 
Rev.  22:  5;  I  Cor.  15:  51,  57.  The  quartet 
sang  u  In  My  Father's  Arms  Enfolded." 

Dr.  Barton  then  read  a  letter  from  Rev.  E.  B. 
Webb,  D.  D.,  who  was  unable  to  be  present.  The 
following  are  the  closing  paragraphs.  They  recall 
the  Oriental  travels  enjoyed  by  pastor  and  parish 
ioner  in  company. 

"Together  we  visited  the  home  of  Mary  and  Mar 
tha,  and  the  tomb  from  which  the  Life-Giver  called 
forth  Lazarus  to  a  new  and  divine  life.  We  stood  in 
Gethsemane,  by  the  old  olive-trees,  beneath  the  shad 
ows  of  which  the  Saviour  of  men  prayed,  and  sweat, 
as  it  were,  great  drops  of  blood.  We  climbed  to 
gether  to  the  top  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  looked 
up  into  the  deep  heavens  to  which  he  ascended,  and 
abroad  to  the  city  over  which  he  wept ;  and  both 
our  words  and  our  silence  told  how  real  it  all  was, 
and  how  the  significance  of  it  entered  into  Our  lives. 


352  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

"From  the  city  we  journeyed  rrorthward, — up  past 
Bethel,  where  Jacob  saw  a  new  vision,  and  got  a  new 
heart,  and  on,  past  the  blue  waters  of  Galilee,  and 
across  the  great  plain,  —  battle-ground  of  the  ancient 
nations,  —  and  over  the  Lebanons  to  Damascus  and 
Baalbec,  and  then  to  the  sea,  and  homeward  thence ; 
and  always  and  everywhere  scrutinizing  the  present, 
or  reaching  back  into  the  past ;  drinking  from  the 
sparkling  waters  of  Abana  and  Pharpar,  or  searching 
for  the  wall  over  which  Paul  was  let  down  in  a  bas 
ket  ;  impressed  by  the  ruins  of  half-buried  temples 
and  cities,  or  looking  forward,  with  sublime  faith  in 
the  prophecy  and  promise,  to  the  time  when  all 
things  shall  be  made  new;  —  Carleton  was  always 
the  same  thoughtful,  genial,  courteous  companion 
and  sympathizing  friend. 

"  I  honored,  loved,  and  esteemed  the  man.  His 
life  is  a  beautiful  example  of  devout  Christian  stead 
fastness.  The  history  of  his  small  beginnings,  grad 
ual  increase,  and  final  success,  is  one  to  inspire  noble 
endeavor,  and  ensure  reward.  He  honored  the 
church,  and  the  church  does  well  to  honor  him. 
"  Affectionately  yours, 

"  E.  B.  WEBB." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Little  paid  a  warm  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  his  friend  : 

"  At  eleven  years  of  age  he  [Carleton]  entered 
the  church.  Think  of  it !  Sixty-three  years  de- 


The  Golden  Wedding  353 

voted  to  the  service  of  his  Lord  and  Master !  He 
seems  to  me  to  be  an  illustration  of  a  man  who, 
when  he  is  equal  to  it,  finds  a  hard  physical  environ 
ment  united  with  a  wholesome  moral  and  spiritual  en 
vironment  of  supreme  advantage.  To  a  weak  nature 
it  would  very  likely  mean  only  failure,  but  to  a  man 
of  the  heroic  mould  of  Mr.  Coffin  it  meant  opportun 
ity,  and  it  only  nerved  him  to  more  strenuous  effort ; 
and  it  was  everything  to  him  that  the  atmosphere  in 
the  home,  the  community,  and  the  church  was  what 
it  was,  —  so  warm,  so  Christian,  so  spiritual,  so  sym 
pathetic,  and  so  suited  to  furnish  just  the  right  con 
ditions  for  the  moulding  of  his  very  responsive  and 
susceptible  nature. 

"  And  then  he  possessed  what  I  think  might  very 
well  be  called  the  spirit  of  aggressiveness,  or,  possibly 
better,  the  spirit  of  sanctified  self-assertion.  He  never 
thought  of  self-assertion  for  his  own  sake,  or  for  the 
sake  of  honor  or  promotion,  but  he  had  in  him  a 
kind  of  push  and  an  earnestness  of  purpose  —  you 
might  almost  say  audacity  —  that  somehow  stirred 
him  and  prompted  him  always  tb  be  in  the  place  of 
greatest  advantage  at  a  given  time  for  the  service 
of  others.  He  seemed  always  to  be  just  at  the  point 
of  supreme  advantage  in  a  crisis,  just  where  he  could 
give  the  world,  at  the  right  time,  and  in  the  best  way, 
the  fullest  report  of  a  battle,  or  a  conference,  or  any 
other  matters  of  supreme  moment.  This  was  char- 


354  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

acteristic  of  him.  It  appeared  all  through  his  New 
Hampshire  life,  and  was  indeed  in  part  a  native  en 
dowment." 

After  an  address  by  the  author  of  this  volume  on 
"Charles  Carleton  Coffin  as  a  Historian,"  Dr.  W. 
E.  Barton,  in  felicitous  diction,  reviewed  the  earthly 
life  of  him  with  whose  career  many  memories  were 
then  busy. 

"Grief  is  no  unusual  thing.  There  is  no  heart 
here  that  has  not  known  it.  There  is  scarce  a  home 
where  death  has  not  entered.  We  weep  the  more 
sincerely  with  those  that  weep,  because  the  intervals 
are  not  long  between  our  own  sorrows.  The  whole 
Commonwealth  mourns  to-day  our  chief  magistrate. 
God  comfort  his  family!  God  save  the  Common 
wealth  of  Massachusetts!  God  bless  him  in  whose 
elevation  to  the  Governor's  chair  Providence  has  an 
ticipated  the  will  of  the  people. 

"A  very  tender  sorrow  brings  us  here  to-day,  and 
we  turn  for  comfort  to  the  Word  of  God. 

"  Text :  With  long  life  will  I  satisfy  him,  |and 
shew  him  my  salvation.  —  Ps.  91  :  16. 

u  It  is  not  because  of  his  unusual  age  that  this 
text  seems  to  me  appropriate  for  the  funeral  of  our 
friend.  His  years  were  but  little  more  than  three 
score  and  ten,  and  his  step  was  light,  and  his  heart 
was  young,  and  we  hardly  thought  of  him  as  an  old 
man.  Nor  is  it  because  his  work  seemed  to  us  com- 


The  Golden  Wedding  355 

pleted,  that  we  think  of  the  measure  of  his  days  as 
satisfied.  His  facile  pen  dropped  upon  a  new  page  ; 
and  before  him,  as  he  ceased  to  labor,  were  tasks 
midway,  and  others  just  begun.  It  is  because  our 
first  feeling  is  so  unsatisfied,  it  is  because  there  was 
so  much  more  which  he  wished,  and  we  wished  him 
to  do,  and  that  we  are  constrained  to  measure  the 
length  of  his  life,  and  to  find,  if  we  may  find,  in 
spite  of  this  sudden  break  in  our  hopes  and  his  plans, 
a  completion  that  can  satisfy.  Measured  by  its  ex 
periences  and  accomplishments,  it  may  seem  to  us 
that  this  life,  so  abruptly  terminated,  was  one  whose 
length  and  symmetry  well  deserve  to  be  considered  a 
fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  the  text." 
Following  the  prayer,  Dr.  Barton  said  : 
"  It  was  the  purpose  of  our  organist,  Mr.  Dun 
ham,  a  true  and  honored  friend  of  Mr.  Coffin,  to 
play,  as  the  postlude  to  this  service,  the  stateliest  of 
funeral  marches,  but  I  dissuaded  him.  This  is  a 
Christian  funeral.  Our  music  is  not  a  dirge,  but 
a  jubilate.  The  hope  of  our  friend  in  life  is  ours  for 
him  in  death.  Instead  of  even  the  noblest  funeral 
march  expressing  our  own  grief,  there  will  be  played 
the  most  triumphant  of  anthems,  expressing  his  own 
victory  over  death, —  Handel's  matchless  c  Hallelujah 
Chorus.'  " 

The  organ  then  played  the  "  Hallelujah  Chorus," 
and  the  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Dr.  Barton. 


356  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 

It  had  been  intended  to  deposit  the  mortal 
relics  of  Carleton  in  the  ancestral  cemetery  at 
Webster,  N.  H.,  the  village  next  to  Boscawen, 
but  Providence  interposed.  After  all  prepara 
tions  for  travel  and  transportation  had  been 
made,  heavy  rains  fell,  which  washed  away 
bridges  and  so  disturbed  the  ordinary  condi 
tion  of  the  roads  in  New  Hampshire  that  the 
body  had  to  be  deposited  in  a  vault  at  Brook- 
line  until  a  more  convenient  season  for  inter 
ment.  Meanwhile,  the  soldiers  of  the  Grand 
Army,  adult  friends,  and  even  children,  united 
in  the  wish  that  the  grave  of  their  friend  and 
helper  might  be  within  easy  reach  of  Boston,  so 
that  on  the  National  Memorial  Day,  and  at 
other  times  of  visitation,  the  grassy  mound 
might  be  accessible  for  the  tribute  of  flowers. 
And  so  it  eventuated  that  what  was  once  mor 
tal  of  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  rests  in  Mount 
Auburn. 

The  memorial  in  stone  will  be  a  boulder 
transported  from  more  northern  regions  ages 
ago  and  left  by  ice  on  land  which  belonged  to 
Mrs.  Coffin's  grandfather.  On  this  rugged 
New  Hampshire  granite  will  be  inscribed  the 
name  of  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  with  the 


The  Golden  Wedding  357 

dates  of   his   births   into    this   world   and    the 
next. 

Both  of  the  man  and  this,  his  last  memorial, 
we  may  say  Deus  fecit. 


THE    END. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  IvIBRARY 


